Visit Whitehouse.gov today, and youll be greeted with a full-bleed video of President Donald Trump stepping back into the White House as fighter jets fly overhead. When it ends, youre left with a big photo of Trump smiling and pointing toward some unseen fans with big text: America is back! Neat. Theres just one little thing missing: The U.S. Constitution web pagewhich, as Redditors have noted, is now a 404 error.Intentional or not, the moment is a symbol of Trumps new world order thats been realized overnightnot in our cities and towns just yetbut across some of the most important spaces in the online world.[Screenshot: whitehouse.gov]The deletion of digital resourcesTrump is preternaturally attuned to the power of his digital reach. In the hours after taking office, he deactivated the core functionality of the CBP One app. This is an app introduced under President Joe Biden giving undocumented migrants the ability to legally seek asylum in the U.S. These people could use the app to sign up for orderly appointments at border crossing checkpoints. Under Trump, you can still download the app, but it no longer takes appointments, and all existing appointments have been canceled. This update appears on the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website, a digital action made years faster than the presidents border wall can be built.[Screenshots: CBP One]The new administration has also abruptly deactivated reproductiverights.gov. Again, this is a Biden administration initiative taken after the Supreme Courts decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization in June 2022 essentially overturned Roe v. Wade. The site offered legal, plain language resources on rights to emergency care, contraceptives, and abortion. Today, this site is simply gone. Load it in your browser and you get a black screen, as if the domain never existed. The Internet Archive is the only place you can see it.[Screenshot: reproductiverights.gov]And beyond the elimination of the Constitution on the White House website, the administration has also deleted the White Houses Spanish version along with its Spanish X account, in what seems like an intentional snub to the Latinx community.Any marginalized group throughout history will tell you that erasure is far from a new phenomenon. But the scale and speed at which its happening now has been supercharged by light speed communications and despots that have architected our digital world. These moves cut far deeper than Trump superficially issuing an executive order to rename the tallest peak in the U.S. from Denali back to Mount McKinley, or calling the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. When the internet is our lived environment, Trump is significantly reshaping our infrastructure with electronic swiftness.By contrast, the erasure of physical spaces is often lengthy and difficult. It requires all sorts of ordinances quietly passed to shift laws that will eventually break concrete. The historic redlining and reconstruction of thriving immigrant neighborhoodslike those in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit, and Miamirequired years of bureaucratic malevolence, followed by high-dollar investments and physical manpower to demolish and rebuild these spaces anew.The modern version, enacted online, is shrewd in its instantaneousness. No one is pretending the decision is simply about building a highway anymore. Organize the right mob, light the right match, strike the right key, and its just gone. All thats left are the survivors who insist, really, something great was here.The flex of social medias political power brokersThis phenomenonthe mass terraforming of our digital spacesis not simply the work of Trump, but of the other power brokers in his orbit, too. On X this week, many users have been welcomed by posts at the top of their feeds showing Elon Musk basking in attention from the adoring crowd at a post-inauguration rally. On Facebook, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg popped into user timelines alongside spouse Priscilla Chan saying hes optimistic and celebrating [flag emoji].These social media moments are more than political victory laps; theyre portraits of deeper decisions at play. Any user of X can attest to its shifting right-wing agenda since Musk took over Twitter and rebranded it. Zuckerberg announced the elimination of fact-checking across his platforms after taking a cultural pulse post-election, arguing, We try to have policies that reflect mainstream discourse. Since the inauguration, many Meta users have found that the algorithm suggests accounts for Trump and Vice President JD Vance, while some even noted the service had temporarily blocked the ability to search some democratic hashtags.We have fewrights on Facebook, Instagram, or X. We sign them away in countless pages of terms and conditions when we agree to converse in the spaces of major corporations. And so when these corporations want favor with Trump, of course the algorithm will project Trumps vision of America as the status quo. Mainstream social media is now a vast propaganda machine, while legacy media is maligned. The digital world is shouting harmful, hateful fictions and that are, through sheer numerical dominance, becoming our reality.In an environment constructed upon vendettas and fictions, its difficult to see a productive way forward that honors veracity, that cares for the people who require our care most. There are no checks and balances in a world that can be deleted with a keystroke. But its worth noting that this supreme digital power is also a massive design flaw: The malleability of the digital record will always be sand shifting under our feetjust ask TikTok, which dodged its own grazed bullet last week.If our previous reality could disappear on little more than a resentful whim, then this hateful empire can, too. Control is never a permanent state.

Architecture studio Archer + Braun has renovated a listed home in Edinburgh, adding a limestone-clad extension punctured by expansive glazing.Aptly named Limestone House, the five-bedroom home unexpectedly received listed status during the design phase, requiring Archer + Braun to blend a "contemporary style with the historic fabric of the structure".Its previously fragmented interior has been reconfigured and opened up with a rear extension, which is clad in Portland stone chosen to complement the home's original architecture.Archer + Braun has added a limestone-clad extension to a home in Edinburgh"The main concept for the project was to propose a contemporary modernist extension that was inspired by the tones and the materiality of the period property, whilst also offering unique spaces and views that are very different to what's found in the existing house," studio co-founder Stuart Archer told Dezeen."This particular limestone was chosen as we felt that it worked much better with the existing property's tone and palette than the buff sandstone that is often used in developments throughout Edinburgh," Archer added."Lastly, the limestone is robust and is suitable for adverse weather situations and is suitable for the wet Scottish climate."Portland stone was used to line the extensionDefined by its textured stone walls, the single-storey rear extension contains a kitchen, dining and living area.Archer + Braun designed it to wrap around the home separated from the existing structure by a "green corridor" that retains views of the residence's original walls through a series of openings.A slim courtyard separates the original home from the new structureAt the front of the home, the extension meets a new two-storey structure housing a guest suite that replaced an original garage. Metal roofing intended to complement the home's natural aesthetic is used to top both of the structures."The extension is pulled away from the existing building so that it touches lightly upon the existing building by introducing a small courtyard," Archer said. "The main proposals are kept to the rear of the site resulting in the principal elevation being unaffected."Read: Luke McClelland uses stone and oak to overhaul Georgian apartment in EdinburghAt its rear, expansive glazed openings that draw on mid-century Californian aesthetics line the extension to provide visual and physical connections between the home and connecting garden.Here, a series of wooden steps designed in response to the site's sloping topography leads down to the outdoor space.A kitchen, dining and living area are contained in the extensionInside, the bright open-plan kitchen, dining and living area features pared-back finishes, retaining focus on outward views. Storage space and a bathroom are held behind this area, off of which a corridor provides access to the internal courtyard and an adjacent garage.At its opposite end, the extension connects to the main house via stairs, which lead up through a study and library before reaching the home's entrance and living spaces.Other adaptations to Limestone House include the transformation of an old kitchen into a snug, while original details such as decorative panelling have been retained.A study connects the kitchen to the existing home"The existing layout of the house was largely retained and any changes were kept to the secondary spaces where there were fewer existing features," Archer said."The original cornicing, panelling, architraves and other details were all refurbished and re-decorated in a neutral palette which allows all the details to be read."Many of the home's original details have been retainedOther homes finished with stone exteriors include a holiday home organised around a courtyard in Mexico and a dwelling built from fluted blocks in Greece.The photography is by Will Scott.The post Archer + Braun adds "modernist extension" to Limestone House in Edinburgh appeared first on Dezeen.

Next in our 21st-Century Architecture: 25 Years 25 Buildings series we look at the updating of three 1960s housing blocks in Bordeaux, which put social housing retrofit at the top of the architectural agenda.Undertaken by French studios Lacaton & Vassal, Frdric Druot Architecture and Christophe Hutin Architecture, the Transformation of 530 Dwellingsnot only demonstrated to France's government that there was an alternative to demolishing its much-maligned social housing stock, it showed how much could be achieved with relatively little.By expanding each housing block with a simple facade of polycarbonate-clad winter gardens, this understated retrofit embodied the ethos that Lacaton & Vassal founders Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal had been quietly pursuing for decades "never demolish, always transform".Transformation of 530 Dwellings was the most significant building of 2016When the project won the Mies van Der Rohe Award in 2019, followed by Lacaton and Vassal themselves being awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2021, it brought global attention to this ethos, which could hardly have resonated more with a new generation of architects confronting joint environmental and housing catastrophes.The fact that two of architecture's most prestigious awards chose to recognise the masters of restrained retrofit was hailed as a significant shift in architectural values and responsibilities, with the Pritzker Architecture Prize Jury calling their work "an adjusted definition of the very profession of architecture".As David Huber wrote in Metropolis magazine, "they don't rattle off the names of de rigueur philosophers or prattle on about 'the future of architecture'. They haven't done a TED Talk. And yet their work is more urgent than that of most of their peers, since they are advocating for buildings that would otherwise be demolished."The project drew attention to the issue of social housing retrofitWhile global recognition re-framed Lacaton & Vassal's work, the duo had since their formation in 1987 been exploring how shoestring budgets, simple gestures and ordinary materials could be used to maximum effect, whether for a private house or a contemporary arts centre.The Transformation of 530 Dwellings, also known as Grand Parc after the name of the housing estate, was one of a series of projects that marked a concerted move into the realm of social housing. The impetus came in 2004, when the French cultural ministry announced billions of euros of funding for urban renewal schemes.Read: Waugh Thistleton Architects' Murray Grove was the most significant building of 2009In the case of the country's often-maligned post-war social housing developments, the true meaning of this "renewal" a euphemism many across Europe will be familiar with meant knocking them down in order to create smaller, more expensive housing."It was great that, finally, there was money available for underprivileged neighbourhoods, but we felt it should be used the right way," Lacaton told The Architectural Review.Winter gardens were added to the three apartment blocksIn response, Lacaton & Vassal, along with former classmate Frederic Drurot, authored a manifesto entitled Plus, or "more", in which they drew up a series of case studies that demonstrated how, through simple, economic gestures, these estates could not only be renewed but made better for their residents than they ever had been all for less money than demolition and reconstruction.This manifesto was where the duo first coined what would become known as their mantra: "never demolish, never remove or replace, always add, transform, and reuse!"Two key projects followed: the Cit Manifeste, for a housing collective in 2005, and the renovation of the Tour Bois-le-Prtre in Paris with Frdric Druot Architecture in 2011.The gardens add useable space to the flatsTour Bois-le-Prtre laid the groundwork for the Bordeaux scheme, not least in giving its residents the reassurance that its architects were not in cahoots with "the men in suits, the enemy", as Lacaton put it.Apparent both in the manifesto and in Lacaton & Vassal's previous housing projects was a gesture that would become a defining one for the architects, and particularly at the Transformation of 530 Dwellings the winter garden.Drawing on a diverse range of influences, from historic glasshouses and agricultural greenhouses to the Case Study House programme, these gardens were a scaffold-like framework affixed to the exterior of existing buildings, replacing often tired, small-windowed facades with full-height polycarbonate walls.Rarely has Mies's famously gnomic aphorism 'less is more' seemed so aptCatherine Slessor in The GuardianNot only did this insulate the block the studio refer to it as "living insulation" but added vast amounts of usable space at the same time, and when the polycarbonate screens are slid open they lead to balconies providing panoramic views of Bordeaux.Prefabricated in concrete and steel, the winter gardens provide each of the 530 apartments in the Grand Parc project with an additional 3.8 metres of depth for some amounting to a doubling in size installed without residents needing to move."You have a person who's lived in the same space for 30 years with a tiny little window and, all of a sudden, there are sweeping views and 25 to 30 square metres of extra space, and they start to think, 'I could put the table over there, a sofa here, plants at the balcony', and something quite astonishing happens," Anne Lacaton told The Architectural review about the strategy.The block appears largely unchangedHalf of the project's budget went towards these winter gardens, and the other half towards more general upgrading. None of this, however, fundamentally changed the existing architecture of the block, with Lacaton & Vassal preferring to simply provide the maximum amount of space and light that residents could then adapt as they wished.Costing a total of around 65,000 euros per apartment, this was a remarkable combination of benefits into a single, straightforward structural intervention, embodying another of the duo's mantras: "economy is not a lack of ambition, but a tool of freedom".Read: Elemental's Quinta Monroy housing was the most significant building of 2004Writing in The Guardian, Catherine Slessor remarked how "rarely has Mies's famously gnomic aphorism 'less is more' seemed so apt".As multiple crises see architecture hunt for where its most impactful purpose lies, Lacaton & Vassal's work continues to provide a resolute answer not in heroic formal gestures, but in making better what we already have so that it works best for those who need it."When you go to the doctor, they might tell you that you're fine, that you don't need any medicine," Vassal told The Guardian in 2021."Architecture should be the same. If you take time to observe, and look very precisely, sometimes the answer is to do nothing."Did we get it right? Was the Transformation of 530 Dwellings in Bordeaux the most significant building completed in 2016? Let us know in the comments. We will be running a poll once all 25 buildings are revealed to determine the most significant building of the 21st century so far.This article is part of Dezeen's21st-Century Architecture: 25 Years 25 Buildingsseries, which looks at the most significant architecture of the 21st century so far. For the series, we have selected the most influential building from each of the first 25 years of the century.The illustration is byJack Bedford and the photography is by Philippe Ruault.21st Century Architecture: 25 Years 25 Buildings2000:Tate Modern by Herzog & de Meuron2001:Gando Primary School by Dibdo Francis Kr2002:Bergisel Ski Jump by Zaha Hadid2003:Walt Disney Concert Hall by Frank Gehry2004:Quinta Monroy by Elemental2005:Moriyama House by Ryue Nishizawa2006:Madrid-Barajas airport by RSHP and Estudio Lamela2007:Oslo Opera House by Snhetta2008:Museum of Islamic Art by IM Pei2009:Murray Grove by Waugh Thistleton Architects2010:Burj Khalifa by SOM2011:National September 11 Memorial byHandel Architects2012:CCTV Headquarters by OMA2013:Cardboard Cathedral by ShigeruBan2014:Bosco Verticale by Stefano Boeri2015:UTEC Lima campus by Grafton Architects2016: Transformation of 530 Dwellings by Lacaton & Vassal, Frdric Druot and Christophe HutinThis list will be updated as the series progresses.The post Lacaton & Vassal, Frdric Druot and Christophe Hutin's Transformation of 530 Dwellings was the most significant building of 2016 appeared first on Dezeen.

The Artphabet explores the diversity of modern art.

From logo design to colour and icons, the hit Netflix show has an unmistakable identity.

MacworldFlagship iPhones, iPads, and Macs typically steal the spotlight when it comes to Apple events and announcements, dominating news coverage and customer interest. However, Apple also offers a wide range of lesser-known products that, while not necessarily as popular or powerful, remain important parts of its ecosystem. Based on the rumor calendar, 2025 is set to be a packed year for Apple hardware, and these six forgotten devices could finally be getting some long-overdue upgrades.iPhone SE 4Despite being the least capable 2025 Apple phone, the iPhone SE 4or iPhone 16Ecould turn out to be a best-seller after it likely launches in March. Compared to its three-year-old predecessor, the fourth-generation budget iPhone is expected to feature an all-new exterior that resembles an iPhone 14 or 15. Thats not to mention supporting Apple Intelligence (thanks to the base A18 chip), adopting Face ID, switching to USB-C, boasting an edge-to-edge OLED panel, and packing a 48MP rear camera.Septembers iPhone 17 phones will undoubtedly intrigue more users with their high-end technical specifications. Nevertheless, given its rumored sub-$500 price, the iPhone SE 4 could convince budget-conscious customers to finally upgrade their worn-out iPhones or mid-range Android phones. After all, it will likely be the first SE model to offer both a modern design and premium internalsand thatll entice numerous undecided buyers to opt for it.Apple Watch SE 3Another outdated SE product rumored to get an upgrade this year is the Apple Watch. Despite being the companys cheapest smartwatch, this model provides a reliable experiencesans some inessential perks currently exclusive to the Series and Ultra models. So, for just $249, users get the same battery life and main set of watchOS apps, excluding support for ECG, an always-on display, and precision finding. This makes it the perfect pick for those seeking to live a more active life but cant justify paying extra for the bonus sensors.In September, the Apple Watch SE 3 is expected to launch with a fresh design, retiring the aluminum chassis in favor of colorful plastic. Consequently, the wearable could potentially drop its price to better compete against cheap fitness trackers and appeal to youngsters. Beyond that, it could pack a faster S-series chipset, bringing faster performance and unlocking more demanding features.The Apple Watch SE hasnt changed much in 5 years.FoundryAirTag 2Released in 2021, the AirTag is arguably the most effective Bluetooth tracker for casual item location. Its powered by Apples vast Find My network, making it discoverable by hundreds of millions of iDevices around the planet. At some point this year, Apple is expected to finally release the coin-sized trackers successor, featuring a newer ultra-wideband chip and added privacy measures.Thanks to the upgraded UWB chip, users will reportedly be able to locate the AirTag 2 with more precision. And since many criminals rely on modified AirTags to stalk their victims, Apple could make removing its speaker more challenging. It certainly wont be 2025s most exciting launch, but given the nature of the product, its a welcome upgrade nonetheless.HomePod mini 2The HomePod mini turns five this year. And, disregarding the superficial color refresh, it has yet to receive its first upgrade. Fortunately, the 2nd-gen model could finally launch in the fall. Based on credible rumors, the HomePod mini 2 will boast a faster processor, Apples in-house wireless connectivity chipset, potential Wi-Fi 6E support, and an enhanced UWB chip for improved Handoff. The speaker could also play a bigger role in Apples HomeKit infrastructure, as the company is about to embrace and take smart home products more seriously. It may not be the most groundbreaking release, but it certainly will maximize the HomePod minis function in peoples houses.Apple TV 4K 4Speaking of homes, the Apple TV 4K could get its first upgrade in three years this fall, too. The fourth-generation model, like the HomePod mini 2, will likely adopt Apples own networking chip, along with a faster A-series brain. Besides potentially expanding its smart home capabilities, its unclear if the Apple TV 4K 4 will bring any other notable features, but expect it to be positioned as a new smart home device thats more than just a silent home hub.The next-gen Apple TV 4K might be more than just a set-top box.FoundryStudio and Pro displaysLaunched in 2019 and 2022, respectively, the Pro Display XDR and Studio Display are overdue for an upgrade. Despite starting at $4,999 and packing industry-leading technology, the former screen could use some improvements. For example, its current refresh rate caps out at 60Hz, so supporting ProMotion (120Hz) would be a great start. It could also borrow some Studio Display features, such as the FaceTime camera and spatial audio speakers. This would turn it into a higher-end variant of the Studio Displayand far more enticing for its $4,999 price tagand maybe include a stand this time.Meanwhile, this years Studio Display could finally switch to mini-LED and improve the bundled webcam. It remains to be seen if Apple has other upgrades in store or plans to drop its $1,599 starting price.In with the newConsidering Apple doesnt upgrade the devices above as frequently as other products, this year will be the perfect entry point for newcomers. Customers looking to get started with the essentials will be able to own an affordable, up-to-date iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirTag. Meanwhile, users migrating their media streaming setup to Apple will appreciate the equally inexpensive Apple TV 4K and HomePod miniwhich can seamlessly output tvOS audio.And while the first-party displays may be relatively niche, their release could accompany new, M4-powered Mac Studio and Mac Pro machines. These would pair well together for professionals seeking high-end configurations.Of course, beyond these six forgotten products, Apple also has a slew of regular updates on tap. These will likely include an M4 MacBook Air and iPad Air, iPad 11 with Apple Intelligence support, M5 MacBook Pro and iPad Pro, Apple Watch Series 11 and Ultra 3, and hopefully some surprises along the way.

If youre a Microsoft 365 subscriber with a Personal or Family subscription, Microsoft just flipped a switch and activated Copilot AI features for your account. Its a new part of your subscription, along with that 1TB of OneDrive storage and access to Office apps like Word and Excel. But there are some big catches including a price hike and some limits.Microsofts latest changes follow in Googles footsteps, with AI features appearing in the standard subscription for much less than youd pay for those AI features separately but with the standard subscription price also going up at the same time.Lets dive into how Microsoft just transformed some of the worlds most popular productivity apps, what you can do now and how you can avoid paying more.Want to keep track of the latest Windows and Office developments in just a few minutes each week? Sign up for my free Windows Intelligence newsletter. Plus, get free Windows Field Guide downloads as a bonus when you sign up!How Copilot works in Microsoft 365 plansFirst things first, the basics: Microsoft announced that all Microsoft 365 Personal and Microsoft 365 Family plans now include Copilot features as of Jan. 16 in most markets worldwide. This wont affect you when using a Microsoft 365 plan provided by a workplace businesses still have to pay separately for AI features but it will affect your individual plans. And plenty of professionals do pay for their own Microsoft 365 subscriptions. (I should know; Im one of them!)In other words, if you pay for Microsoft 365 and use apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook, youll now find the Copilot button popping up in these applications. Previously, you had to pay $20 per month for a Copilot Pro subscription to unlock these features.Heres the first big catch: The newly expanded paid 365 plans dont give you unlimited access to Microsofts AI features. Instead, you get a monthly allotment of credits that Microsoft says should be enough for most subscribers. In practice, that appears to be 60 credits per month meaning you can use AI features 60 times per month. After that, youll need to pay for a $20-per-month Copilot Pro subscription to keep using those AI features.Youll see an informational pop-up window the first time you open an app like Word.Chris Hoffman, IDGNote: These AI credits are actually shared across various other Microsoft apps including for AI image generation in Designer, Paint, and Photos and text-editing work in Notepad. Theyre not just for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.Plus, again, Microsoft is raising its 365 subscription prices, with Copilot bundled into the mix. Theyre going up by $3 per month in the US, though the exact price increase will vary by country. For the yearly plans in the US, Microsoft 365 Family goes from $100 to $130 per year, and Microsoft 365 Personal goes from $70 to $100 per year.This is the first time Microsoft has raised prices since launching the subscription service originally called Office 365 back in 2013. While its true that Microsoft is using these AI features as a way to hike prices, these subscriptions were overdue for a price increase anyway, and its nice to at least get something out of it. (In my opinion, between the 1TB of OneDrive storage and access to Office apps, its still a good value.)Its worth noting that this Copilot change is only for Microsoft 365 plans. If you buy a more traditional one-time purchase version of Office like Office 2024, your setup isnt changing and you wont have access to these newer AI features.Using Copilot AI in Microsoft 365 appsWith the new adjustments in place, Copilot AI is easy to find in Office apps: Youll find a Copilot icon on the ribbon, or you can also select some text and click the little Copilot icon that appears next to it, or just press Alt+i. Then you can prompt Copilot to write or rewrite text in a document for you. You could also ask it questions about the document youre viewing from the Copilot sidebar.For more information on exactly how Copilot works in these Office apps, check out my Copilot Pro review from last year. The new built-in Copilot features are exactly the same as what you get with Copilot Pro; the only difference is that youre limited to 60 uses per month in the 365 setup.If you run out of credits, Microsoft will encourage you to upgrade to Copilot Pro. In a way, then, these AI features are a bit of a trial for Copilot Pro.To check how many credits you have left, you can click the little menu icon in the Copilot sidebar in an Office app and then click AI credit balance. This will take you to your Microsoft 365 account subscription page, where you can see a running balance of the AI credits youve used.Your AI credit balance is just a few clicks away.Chris Hoffman, IDGGenerating images with Microsoft DesignerThe same credit system also applies to Microsoft Designer, which is a useful AI image-generation tool. (At our newsletter-focused small business The Intelligence, we use Microsoft Designer to create some feature image illustrations for our articles were writers, not visual artists!)That means with any paid Personal or Family 365 plan, you can opt to use your 60 monthly AI image credits directly within Designer, too. This is actually quite a downgrade: Previously, everyone got 15 credits per day for AI image generations. Now, subscribers get a total of 60 credits per month, while free accounts only get 15 credits per month.If you need more than that, you can upgrade to the $20-a-month Copilot Pro plan, which gives you many more AI image generations in Designer and beyond. (Microsoft says you get at least 10x more credits for Designer with Copilot Pro, compared to the 15-credits-per-month free setup so roughly 150 credits per month, then, compared to the 60 monthly credits in the base 365 subscription.)AI tools are expensive to create and operate, and companies have lost a lot of money on them. Its no surprise to see many AI tools offering less for free and looking for more payment from their users; thats whats happening here.How to avoid the AI features (and costs) entirelyThere are ways to avoid the Microsoft 365 subscription price increases, if you dont anticipate using them and dont want to pay for them. (The price increase doesnt take effect until your next subscription renewal, by the way.)If you already have a Microsoft 365 subscription, you can keep your old subscription price and opt out of the AI features for a limited time. Microsoft says you can switch by canceling your subscription and choosing one of the Classic plans during the cancelation process. Here are Microsofts instructions.You could also buy perpetual licenses of Office instead of using the more prominently offered subscriptions. In other words, with a one-time purchase of Office 2024, you could use Office for a few years for that one-time purchase price. Its not as good a deal as it sounds that one-time purchase price will only get you access to Office apps like Word and Excel on a single computer, and you wont have access to the 1TB of OneDrive storage. (Plus, while your license will be good in perpetuity, Microsoft will stop delivering security updates for Office 2024 in October 2029.)You can also buy Microsoft 365 subscription keys from other retailers. Without getting into the weeds too far here, its worth noting that days after Microsoft implemented the subscription price increase, Amazon is still selling Microsoft 365 Personal subscriptions for $70 and Microsoft 365 Family subscriptions for $100 the old prices. But these are the standard plans and include those AI features. Thats a bargain.Of course, you could also turn to other office suites the web-based Google Docs, the open-source LibreOffice, or the Apple-focused iWork suite but Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are the business standard for a reason. And even with these AI-adding price increases, getting that 1TB of OneDrive storage at those prices is still a great deal.Want more insights and helpful tips? Sign up for my free Windows Intelligence newsletter! Youll also get three new things to try every Friday and free copies of Paul Thurrotts Windows Field Guides as a special welcome gift.

Its happened yet again this time to Apple.Apple recently had to disable AI-generated news summaries in its News app in iOS 18.3. You can guess why: the AI-driven Notification Summaries for the news and entertainment categories in the app occasionally hallucinated, lied, and spread misinformation.Sound familiar?Users complained about the summaries, but Apple acted only after a complaint from BBC News, which told Apple that several of its notifications were improperly summarized.These were major errors in some cases.The generative AI (genAI) tool incorrectly summarized a BBC headline, falsely claiming that Luigi Mangione, who was charged with murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had shot himself. It inaccurately reported that Luke Littler had won the PDC World Darts Championship hours before the competition had even begun and falsely claimed that Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal had come out as gay.Apple summarized other real stories with false information: The tool said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been arrested, Pete Hegseth had been fired, that Trump tariffs had triggered inflation (before Donald Trump had re-assumed office), and spewed dozens of other falsehoods.Apple rolled out the feature not knowing it would embarrass the company and force a retreat which is amazing when you consider that this happens to every other company that tries to automate genAI information delivery of any kind on a large scale.Microsoft Starts travel section, for example, published an AI-generated guide for Ottawa that included the Ottawa Food Bank as a tourist hotspot, encouraging visitors to come on an empty stomach.In September 2023, Microsofts news portal MSN ran an AI-generated obituary for former NBA player Brandon Hunter, who had passed away at the age of 42. The obituary headline called Hunter useless at 42, while the body of the text said that Hunter had performed in 67 video games over two seasons.Microsofts news aggregator, MSN, attached an inappropriate AI-generated poll to aGuardianarticle about a womans death.The poll asked readers to guess the cause of death, offering options like murder, accident, or suicide.During its first public demo in February 2024, Googles Bard AI incorrectly claimed that the James Webb Space Telescope had taken the first pictures of a planet outside our solar systemsome 16 years after the first extrasolar planets were photographed.These are just a few examples out of many.The problem: AI isnt humanThe Brandon Hunter example is instructive. The AI knows enough about language to know that a person who does something is useful, that death means they can no longer do that thing, and that the opposite of useful is useless. But AI does not have a clue that saying in an obituary that a persons death makes them useless is problematic in the extreme.Chatbots based onLarge Language Models(LLMs) are inherently tone-deaf, ignorant of human context, and cant tell the difference between fact and fiction, between truth and lies. They are, for lack of a better term, sociopaths unable to tell the difference between the emotional impact of an obituary and a corporate earnings report.There are several reasons for errors.LLMs are trained on massive datasets that contain errors, biases, or inconsistencies. Even if the data is mostly reliable, it may not cover all possible topics a model is expected to generate content about, leading to gaps in knowledge. Beyond that, LLMs generate responses based on statistical patterns using probability to choose words rather than understanding or thinking. (Theyve been described as next-word prediction machines.)The biggest problem, however, is that AI isnt human, sentient, or capable of thought.Another problem: People arent AIMost people dont pay attention to the fact that we dont actually communicate with complete information. Heres a simple example: If I say to my neighbor, Hey, whats up? My neighbor is likely to reply, Not much. You?A logic machine would likely respond to that question by describing the layers of the atmosphere, satellites, and the planets and stars beyond. It answered the question factually as it was asked, but the literal content of the question did not contain the actual information sought by the asker.To answer that simple question in the manner expected, a person has to be a human who is part of a culture and understands verbal conventions or has to be specifically programmed to respond to such conventions with the correct canned response.When we communicate, we rely on shared understanding, context, intonation, facial expression, body language, situational awareness, cultural references, past interactions, and many other things. This varies by language. The English language is one of the most literally specific languages in the world, and so a great many other languages will likely have bigger problems with human-machine communication.Our human conventions for communication are very unlikely to align with genAI tools for a very long time. Thats why frequent AI chatbot users often feel like the software sometimes willfully evades their questions.The biggest problem: Tech companies can be hubristicWhats really astonishing to me is that companies keep doing this. And by this, I mean rolling out unsupervised automated content-generating systems that deliver one-to-many content on a large scale.And scale is precisely the difference.If a single user prompts ChatGPT and gets a false or ridiculous answer, they are likely to shrug and try again, sometimes chastising the bot for its error, for which the chatbot is programmed to apologize and try again. No harm, no foul.But when an LLM spits out a wrong answer for a million people, thats a problem, especially in Apples case, where no doubt many users are just reading the summary instead of the whole story. Wow, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was arrested. Didnt see that coming, and now some two-digit percentage of those users are walking around believing misinformation.Each tech company believes they have better technology than the others.Google thought: Sure, that happened to Microsoft, but our tech is better.Apple thought: Sure, it happened to Google, but our tech is better. Tech companies: No, your technology is not better. The current state of LLM technology is what it is and we have definitely not reached the point where genAI chatbots can reliably handle a job like this.What Apples error teaches usTheres a right way and a wrong way to use LLM-based chatbots. The right way is to query with intelligent prompts, ask the question in several ways, and always fact-check the responses before using or believing that information.Chatbots are great for brainstorming, providing quick information that isnt important, or being a mere starting point for research that leads you to legitimate sources.But using LLM-based chatbots to write content unsupervised at scale? Its very clear that this is the road to embarrassment and failure.The moral of the story is that genAI is still too unpredictable to reliably represent a company in one-to-many communications of any kind at scale.rrorSo, make sure this doesnt happen with any project under your purview. Setting up any public-facing content-producing project meant to communicate information to large numbers of people should be a hard, categorical no until further notice.AI is not human, cant think, and it will confuse your customers and embarrass your company if you give it a public-facing role.

The now almost four month-long ban on sales of the iPhone 16 in Indonesia may be lifted "very, very soon," according to a government minister.iPhone 16 Pro modelsIndonesia banned sales of the iPhone 16 in October 2024, just weeks after it was launched. It was because of the country's laws about locally-sourced components, and also because Apple had fallen short on its investment commitments.According to Bloomberg, the long negotiation between Apple and the country may be about to be resolved. There are no specific details of any deal with Apple, and the company has not commented, but a local minister has said the conclusion is in sight. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Spending on nonresidential buildings will see gains of only 2.2% in 2025 and 2.6% in 2026, according to the AIAs latest Consensus Construction Forecast. Despite increasing by 20% in 2023 and 6% in 2024, the AIA expects spending on commercial, industrial, and institutional facilities to slow dramatically in the coming two years.Across key sectors, the AIA expects commercial spending to grow 1.7% this year, with office spending increasing 3.6% and institutional spending increasing 6%. Of all typologies, data centers will see the largest spending increase at 21.9% while warehouses will see the largest decrease with a 2% decline.Extract from the AIA's latest Consensus Construction Forecast. The interactive data is available to view here.The modest outlook is partly based on a few expected headwinds to building activity, including potential tariffs on imports, said AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker. There is also policy concern around how the construction labor force might be impa...