MacworldFor over a year, Apples CarPlay site has teased the arrival of the next generation in 2024. Now that its 2025, Apple finally admits thats not happening.When it was announced at WWDC in 2022, next-gen CarPlay was an exciting peek at the future of in-dash navigation systems. Instead of a rectangular screen, the next-gen CarPlay takes over the entire instrument panel, including car functions such as air conditioning and gauges. Apple says next-gen CarPlay ensures a cohesive design experience that is the very best of your car and your iPhonewith designs for each automaker that express your vehicles character and brand.While it was originally supposed to arrive in 2023, only two automakers, Porsche and Aston Martin, have announced actual support for the system and neither has produced a car or even a real-world concept shoring off the interface. In late 2023, Porsche and Aston Martin showed off images of their respective systems, with a series of digital gauges and a background wallpaper that mimics the brands distinct houndstooth (or Pepita in Porsche-speak) seat pattern and a central information screen bookended by a circular speedometer and tachometer, the latter of which integrates Hand built in Great Britain wraparound text.Theres a lot about next-gen CarPlay that we dont know yet, including whether it will require an iPhone to work. At the time of its announcement, Apple was still rumored to be working on its own vehicle, and next-gen CarPlay appeared to be something of a test for running a vehicles instrument cluster. But now that the project appears to be dead, its unclear how CarPlay fits into Apples ecosystem.Apple finally removed the coming in 2024 text from the CarPlay website but hasnt replaced it with any new estimate. In a statement to the media, Apple said: The next generation of CarPlay builds on years of success and insights gained from CarPlay, delivering the best of Apple and the automaker in a deeply integrated and customizable experience. We continue to work closely with several automakers, enabling them to showcase their unique brand and visual design philosophies in the next generation of CarPlay. Each car brand will share more details as they near the announcements of their models that will support the next generation of CarPlay.Thats much less specific than coming in 2024 and implies that the project is much less far along than Apple previously implied. We might get our next peek at CarPlay at WWDC in June but for now, its anyones guess as to when the first cars might show up.

MacworldEarlier this week, a class action lawsuit was filed against Apple, accusing the company of knowingly using harmful chemicals in three Apple Watch bands. On Thursday, Apple made a public statement about the lawsuit, stating that the bands are Safe for users to wear.The lawsuit cites a University of Notre Dame study that found that 15 of 22 watch bands tested contain toxic polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The PFAS can be absorbed through the skin, eventually leading to health problems. The published study cites ten companies whose bands were tested (including Apple, Nike, Google, and Fitbit), but the published results use labels that dont specifically identify the band and model of the band tested.The bands cited in the lawsuit are the Sport Band (the band included with a new Apple Watch), the Ocean Band, and the Nike Sport Band. The lawsuit states that Apple continues to hide the existence of PFAS at the point of purchase and otherwise. You can find a copy of the lawsuit below.Apple issued a response to the lawsuit:Apple Watch bands are safe for users to wear. In addition to our own testing, we also work with independent laboratories to conduct rigorous testing and analysis of the materials used in our products, including Apple Watch bands.In November 2022, Apple published a white paper about its phasing out of PFAS in its products. In the Executive Summary of the paper, Apple states that it wants to thoughtfully phase out PFAS in a way that does not result in regrettable substitutions and that the company is prioritizing our phaseout activities on applications that result in the highest volumes of PFAS reductions and the most meaningful environmental impact. The Apple paper does not address PFAS in specific Apple Watch bands.Apple Watch band class action lawsuitDownloa

Google has started rolling out a number of new features in Chrome OS, according to The Verge, including a new feature that allows a user to control their Chromebook using head movements (to move the mouse pointer) and facial expressions (to click or activate dictation).In the video below, see how it works:To use the new feature, your Chromebook must have at least 8GB of RAM. In this context, it can be mentioned that about twenty new Chromebook models will be launched in 2025.

OpenAI is releasing a preview version of its first AI agent, Operator, which is specifically designed to use a web browser and can, for example, book a table at a restaurant for the user on its own. (An AI agent is a system that can be given a task and then work on it independently.)In the meantime, the user can either watch the Operator work on the web or do something completely different. In some cases, the Operator will wait for the user for example, if it needs to log in somewhere or confirm that an email should be sent.OpenAI says its Operator will not be able to perform malicious tasks. The company also notes that the tool currently has problems with more complex user interfaces, such as managing a calendar or creating a slideshow for a presentation.Operator will initially be available to ChatGPT Pro users, which is the most expensive variant of Chat GPT at $200 a month. But ChatGPT Plus users will also have access to the agent in the coming months.The AI agent will first be available in the US, followed by other countries.

Apple is facing a class-action lawsuit that claims the company deliberately conceals the use of potentially harmful chemicals in certain Apple Watch bands. However, Apple asserts that the bands are safe to wear.The Nike Sport Band is one of the PFAS-containing bands Apple offersOn Tuesday, a class action lawsuit filed by the Northern District of California, first spotted by The Register was levied against Apple. The lawsuit claimed that some Apple Watch bands the company manufactures contain a high level of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).According to the lawsuit, three Apple Watch bands have high concentrations of PFAS: the Apple Watch Sport Band, the Nike Sport Band, and the Ocean Band. Because Apple describes these bands as made from fluoroelastomer, the lawsuit alleges that Apple knowingly conceals the presence of PFAS, which is linked to adverse health effects. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Apple Vision Pro may represent the latest in technological innovations from Apple, but it also acts as an excellent time machine for exploring VR and 3D content spanning back decades. Here are the apps to check out.Apple Vision Pro is an excellent tool for viewing legacy 3D and VR contentHumanity has been toying around with the idea of escaping to different realities through technology for decades. Science fiction has depicted everything from goggles to holodecks, and archaic forms of VR and 3D have been around for decades.Apple Vision Pro is the latest attempt that's packed to the brim with incredible technology, but since it's a general computer with apps and a browser, users can access more than just native content. Everything from planetarium dome videos to VR that predates the PlayStation can be run on Apple's hardware. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

The University of Notre Dame has named Liam OConnor and Philippe Rotthier as the laureates of this years Richard H. Driehaus Prize and Henry Hope Reed Award, respectively.Known for his extensive body of work that includes the British Normandy Memorial in France, OConnor, who was also previously a visiting professor at Notre Dame and Yale, was cited by School of Architecture dean Stefanos Polyzoides as producing several other important monuments that are "representation of deeper value and of national memory that is in enormously short supply these days."The jurys citation of the British-born Irish architect continued, "[His] memorial architecture is both classical and classic. It is classical since the language of the memorials refers to a specific historical period. Yet it is also classic because the collective memory it evokes as a remembrance of things past and things to come transcends time, alas, for as long as we remain humans."The annual $200,000 prize is among the h...

Assassins Creed Shadows creative director Jonathan Dumont has revealed that the studio decided to make the open-world in the upcoming title leaner, with less clutter than previous games in the franchise. Speaking to GamesRadar, Dumont spoke about how visiting Japan to do research on Assassins Creed Shadows changed the developers minds on how to tackle things in the game.When you go on location, theres always something that even if you looked at all the books, the movies, everything, you say oh man, thats surprising,' said Dumont. It was the density of the trees and the forest and how much there was. You had a lot of little mountains that created overlapping views that typically we didnt quite get.Dumont talks about the studio needing to focus on crafting a world with an immense level of fidelity even at smaller scales, thanks to having their perspectives changed after seeing a Japanese castle fortress in person.And the scale of castles and things like that. Castles are big, you know, the castle fortresses holy crap, when you go there, its like I didnt expect that,' he said. So we had to adjust to sort of wrap our mind around, well, we needed much more fidelity on the scale.Owing to this, the studio is working on making sure that players will feel a similar level of awe, which can only be achieved when they arent constantly being bombarded by new points of interest.The travel time is a little different its not a point of interest [followed immediately by another] point of interest, [every] 50 meters, explained Dumont. Theres more open, natural landscaping that will be a little bit longer to travel, but when you get to a place theres a lot more to it. The scale ratio changed from Odyssey, and what we had done before, and then just the fidelity of trying to make incredible attention to detail in the environment, so that we craft the crap out of it.After facing quite a few delays, Assassins Creed Shadows finally got a release date of March 20. Game director Charles Benoit revealed that, in this latest delay, the studio isnt working on overhauling any of the games major mechanics. Rather, the studio is spending the extra time to polish whats already in the game.Adding on to this, Benoit also mentioned that a key area of polish in the upcoming title is its parkour system. Since the roofs of the buildings of Feudal Japan tend to be more complex than the places weve previously seen from the franchise, extra work was needed to make sure that protagonists Naoe and Yasuke will be able to run up and down these buildings without looking awkward.Assassins Creed Shadows is coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Pre-ordering the game also gets players the Claws of Awaji DLC, which will feature an additional 10 hours worth of content, complete with a new zone and new equipment for players to find. The DLC is slated for release later in the year.

With the release of Monster Hunter Wilds being just over the horizon, developers of the title have been revealing more and more details about the upcoming game. In an interview with IGN, director Yuya Tokuda has revealed that the monsters in Wilds will feature larger health pools and higher flinch thresholds than weve seen in World.According to Tokuda, this is because the studio wants players to make frequent use of the games new Focus Strikes mechanic, which essentially allows players to do massive damage to monsters by exploiting the wounds they accrue throughout a fight. Owing to this mechanic, despite monsters having more health, the duration of hunts wont be too different from what players are used to from previous titles.Its not as if that was our intention from the start, but health did end up being a little bit higher than World once we thought about maintaining appropriate playtimes and player satisfaction, compared to past titles, explained Tokuda. Elements like flinch resistance are also higher, but this doesnt mean that hunts will be tedious. Part of the purpose of Focus Mode is to allow players to feel more accomplished through shorter loops. We tried to design it so that the time they spend hunting is even more concentrated than before.Tokuda spoke quite a bit about Focus Strikes, explaining that the studio wanted to make sure that each weapon type feels unique with the mechanic. This led to the studio making unique Focus Strike animations for each weapon. He did, however, admit that Focus Strikes may have been a bit too strong from the beta tests back in November.For Focus Strikes, we wanted to have animations that show each weapons uniqueness, said Tokuda. But I admit that this also created a variation between weapons during the open beta test where some were far too strong, while feeling the strengths of others was difficult. Though we do allow differences between weapons in order to give them personality, we dont want the disparity between weapons to be too extreme, and so were tuning them to be more standardized for the official release of the game.Earlier this month, Tokuda had also spoken about how Capcom decides which old monster to bring back for its new title, and how much of the roster should consist of new monsters. Ultimately, rather than having some sort of quota, the studio instead focuses on what would be an ideal experience for the player, as well as how a monster would fit into the ecology of the world created in the new game.Tokuda also explained that it designed new monsters by taking into account how it would affect the ecology of the zones it is being designed for. Providing the example of Monster Hunter Wilds cover monster Arkveld, Tokuda mentioned that the developers had to consider things like where the monster would sit in the hierarchy of monsters that would be predators and prey, among many other things.Monster Hunter Wilds is coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on February 28.

Earths Magnetic North Pole Is Shifting Toward Siberia and Raising Questions About Unusual MovementScientists released an update to a model that maps the ever-moving pole and has significant implications for navigation systemsElla JeffriesStaff ContributorJanuary 24, 2025 12:41 p.m. The magnetic north pole, distinct from the geographic North Pole, is the point where Earths magnetic field lines converge. NASA via RawpixelFor decades, Earths magnetic north pole has been slowly drifting across the Arctic, but recent shifts in its path have caught the attention of scientistsand those who rely on precise navigation systems. The magnetic north poles movement, which has suddenly accelerated toward Siberia this century, raises questions about whats driving the unusual shift and why its motion matters.The magnetic north pole is distinct from the geographic North Pole, a fixed point where the Earths axis meets its surface. Instead, magnetic north is the changing location where the planets magnetic field lines converge. This field is generated by the churning of the planets outer core, a layer of molten iron and nickel that begins roughly 1,800 miles beneath Earths surface. As the fluid dynamics of the core change, the magnetic pole shifts over time in a process known as the geodynamo. Now, something unusual seems to be happening.The current behavior of magnetic north is something that we have never observed before, William Brown, a global geomagnetic field modeler at the British Geological Survey, says in a statement.Since it was first discovered in 1831 by explorer James Clark Ross, the magnetic north pole has gradually shifted. Over the past century, its movement from Canada toward Russia has accelerated, increasing from about 6 miles per year to a peak of 31 miles annually by the 2000s. However, in the last five years, the rate of movement has slowed significantly to about 22 miles per year, the biggest deceleration in speed weve ever seen, Brown adds in the statement.British and American scientists have traced this motion over time. Every five years, they release a new edition of the World Magnetic Model (WMM), a tool used by GPS systems and navigation devices that maps the north magnetic pole. As of the latest revision, released in December, its location is closer to Siberia than it was five years ago.For industries reliant on magnetic fields, such as aviation, shipping and navigation, this movement is no small matter. GPS systems, planes and military equipment track the magnetic field and rely on accurate models of magnetic north to function properly. When the magnetic field shifts, the models must be updated to reflect the changes.The more you wait to update the model, the larger the error becomes, Arnaud Chulliat, a senior research scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and NOAAs National Centers for Environmental Information, tells Mindy Weisberger of CNN. The way the model is built, our forecast is mostly an extrapolation given our current knowledge of the Earths magnetic field.Scientists are still unsure why the magnetic north poles speed changed so dramatically. Some researchers believe that changes in the strength of the magnetic field near Canada and Siberia could be influencing the shift.Ciarn Beggan, a geophysicist at the British Geological Survey, says the overall strength of Earths magnetic field has been decreasing over the past couple of centuries, but not uniformly. The field is getting weaker in Canada but stronger around Siberia, and that pulls the magnetic pole towards Siberia, Beggan tells Kasha Patel of the Washington Post.However, the exact reasons for the acceleration and subsequent deceleration remain unclear. The behavior of the magnetic field is considered complicated and chaotic, Brown tells Live Sciences Skyler Ware, which is why the WMM must be updated regularly. In 2019, scientists released the WMM one year early, because the magnetic pole was moving much faster than usual.While these changes may seem minor to the average person, they have significant consequences for systems that rely on magnetic fields for navigation. The latest version of the WMM includes a much higher resolution map of magnetic north than ever before to help reduce errors in navigation systems.Scientists say that if you tried traveling the 5,280 miles from South Africa to the United Kingdom in a straight line using the old WMM, it would leave you 93 miles off course by the end of your trip, per the statement.The WMM update also comes amid broader scientific discussions about the future of Earths magnetic field. Over the last two centuries, the field has weakened by about 9 percent, per the Washington Post. Geophysicists have long speculated that the weakening of the magnetic field could signal a potential geomagnetic reversal, in which the planets north and south magnetic poles swap places.While such an event is not expected to happen any time soon, they have occurred periodically throughout Earths historythe last reversal took place around 780,000 years ago. Scientists are not yet able to predict when the next reversal will occur.As for the magnetic north pole, its future movement is also uncertain.It could change (its) rate, or even speed up again, Brown told CNN. We will continue to monitor the field and assess the performance of the WMM, but we do not anticipate needing to release a new model before the planned update in 2030.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Astrophysics, Canada, Earth's Core, Explorers, Geography, Geology, Navigation, Physics, Russia , Technology