The federal law banning TikTok has revealed a major schism among American tech companies: Some are willing to flout the law and some, including Apple and Google, are not.

MacworldIf youre going to get a tablet, then the M2 iPad Air is the best you can buy, with the right mix of performance, price, and portability. And todays that price is even better: Amazon is selling the 11-inch M2 iPad Air for $500, $99 off its MSRP, and just $2 off its all-time low.In our 4-star review of the 11-inch iPad Air, we praised its processor upgrade and performance, as well as the fact the upgrade to 128GB base storage, essentially cutting the price by $50. The lower entry-level price, the increased basic memory capacity of 128GB, and the front camera on the long edge are all pleasing upgrades for this generation of Air. The fact that the iPad has also been given the next chip up, the M2, is also welcome.Otherwise, its very similar to the previous model, which isnt a bad thing. Its got a gorgeous 11-inch Liquid Retina display as well as a 12MP ultra-wide front camera with Center Stage. This will ensure that even if you move around the room, the camera will focus on you. Its also ready for Apple Intelligence as it continues its rollout throughout 2025.Dont miss out on the chance to get an iPad Air for $500 at Amazon, a fantastic price for one of the best tablets out there.A stellar tablet for a stellar priceBuy now at Amazon

MacworldAt a glanceExpert's RatingProsIncluded as part of Office subscriptionPacked with templatesEasy to switch stylesConsPlenty of great alternatives nowOur Verdict PowerPoint is still a fantastic way to build a presentation, and while there are new rivals to its throne, it remains surprisingly flexible and easy to use thanks to a robust feature set. Itll be interesting to see if AI leads to additional features, too.Price When ReviewedThis value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefinedBest Pricing TodayFrom business presentations to high-school slideshows, PowerPoint is so famous its almost a verb in some circles. And, while Apples Keynote is a fantastic alternative, as with Microsoft Word theres a good chance youve worked with Microsofts suite for so long itd be harder to change.That doesnt mean there are plenty of regions to use PowerPoint on its own merit though. In fact, its a fantastic presentation builder thats packed with templates for just about anything, has deep OneDrive integration and is likely to be supported for decades to come.Interestingly, it doesnt pack as many AI features as Keynote (at least not yet), but with the likes of Canva and Figma on its case, theres every chance that could happen soon as Microsoft looks to keep competition at bay.First ImpressionsNew from Template: There are plenty of ways to get startedFoundryBooting up PowerPoint, youre met with pretty much the same screen as youll get when firing up Word or Excel, too.This lets you jump right into a recent file, check out presentations that have been shared with you, or open up one youve saved in OneDrive.Its really nice to be able to get started, and theres a huge catalog of templates to pick from, too, ranging from project outlines, to colorful slideshows, to more fun and whimsical offerings. For someone as creatively challenged as myself, I appreciated finding a starting point was a simple process.It is worth noting that, while itll be familiar to some, there are a lot of toolbars and icons for newcomers. Im not against that, because presentations can be inherently personal, but its something to consider if youre introducing someone that hasnt used Office365 before.Speaking of Office365, its the way PowerPoint feeds into the wide Microsoft app ecosystem that makes it as compelling as the likes of Googles apps. For instance, you likely didnt think to buy a presentation app piecemeal, but if youve got one included in your subscription then its worth using.For $99.99 a year (or $9.99 per month) you get up to six licenses across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and more, which is a ton of value even if youre putting a presentation together once in a blue moon.For one user its $99.99/84.99 a year ($9.99/8.49 a month) for Microsoft 265 Personal, which includes up to six licenses across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and more, which is a ton of value even if youre putting a presentation together once in a blue moon. Or for $129.99/104.99 a year (or $12.99/10.49 per month) you can get the Microsoft 365 Family edition with up to six licenses.However, if you only want to buy PowerPoint you can do that too. Microsoft sells a lifetime license of Word for $179.99/159.99 (one device). You can also buy a lifetime license to Office Home 2024 for one device, which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote for just $149.99/119.99. Which is a bargain (if you forget that Apple gives its Office apps away for free).Microsoft PowerPoint featuresChange Styles: Its easy to mix up styles in PowerPoint if youre looking to freshen things up.FoundryAside from a whole host of ways to get cracking with a presentation, I appreciate how simple it is to revise a presentations styling wholesale. Once youve built it, you can switch between styles as if it were as easy as changing a single element, and thats ideal for anyone looking to produce multiple copies of a report for clients and needs a distinct style for each without changing the content wholesale.Keynote is, in my mind, nicer to look at, but PowerPoint is plenty powerful and its easy enough to add images and assets from just about anywhere, including OneDrive (if you have the app installed on your Mac).Templates: PowerPoint is packed with templates for you to use as a starting point.FoundryCopilot plays a sizeable role in the app these days with features like a speaker coach to practice your presentation, but theres no generative AI image drop-in like youll find in Keynote with Apple Intelligence (at least not on Mac).There is support for Apples Writing Tools, and you can drop a video recording directly onto your presentation with a Cameo feature. Its neat, letting you add a personal touch, but Id wager youll have access to much more when working on a Windows PC.You can share presentations for real-time collaboration via OneDrive, too, letting you work with a team member.Microsoft PowerPoint annoyancesTransitions: The transitions you love are still here, youll be pleased to knowFoundryMy only complaint is that Microsofts toolbar-heavy UI means PowerPoint likely isnt particularly beginner-friendly, but at least its relatively uniform across apps.Its also worth looking at what rivals in the space are doing. Google Sheets, Canva, and Figma all offer impressive suites of presentation tools at minimal cost to a user, and theyre starting to introduce additional AI-driven features but I expect Microsoft is doing its own work in that area to maintain an advantage.Should you buy PowerPoint 2024 for Mac?PowerPoint is, well, a powerhouse. Its packed to the gills with features, and if youre on a Windows PC thats only likely to be even more true. If youre an Office365 user, youll find plenty of reasons to invest in it for your next presentation, but rivals are coming for the crown.Also read: Microsoft Excel review: Whats new in Excel 2024? and Microsoft Word for Mac review: Whats new?

President Donald Trumps executive order removing Biden-Administration rules governing AI development is being cast as an opening of AI development flood gates, which could fast track advances in the still-new technology, but could also pose risks.Signed on Thursday, the executive order (EO) overturns former President Joe Bidens 2023 policy, which mandated that AI developers conduct safety testing and share results with the government before releasing systems that could pose risks to national security, public health, or the economy.The revocation of the 2023 Eo shifts federal oversight from mandates to voluntary commitments, reducing requirements such as safety training submissions and large-scale computer acquisition notices, enabling less regulated innovation.This means some states may continue to follow the regulatory guidance in the 2023 EO, while others may not, said Lydia Clougherty Jones Sr., a director analyst at Gartner Research.Trumps policy states its purpose is to sustain and enhance Americas dominance in AI, and promote national security. The EO directs the creation of an AI Action Plan, led by the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, the White House AI and Crypto Czar, and the National Security Advisor. Michael Kritsios (former US CTO under the Trump administration), David Sacks (venture capitalist and former PayPal executive), and US Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla), have been nominated or appointed, respectively, to these positions.A public-private partnership on AIAlong with the order, Trump also unveiled the Stargate initiative, a public-private venture that would create a new company to build out the nations AI infrastructure, including new data centers and new power plants to feed them. Initially, Stargate will team up the US government with OpenAI, Oracle, and Softbank. The companies will initially invest $100 billion in the project, with plans to reach $500 billion. Trump said the move would create 100,000 US jobs.Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, for example, said 10 new AI data centers are already under construction. He linked the project to the use of AI for digital health records, noting the technology could help develop customized cancer vaccines and improve disease treatment.Not everyone is, however, upbeat about the loosening of government oversight of AI development and partnerships with the private sector.The Stargate announcement, along with the Trump Administrations reversal of the earlier AI safety order, could replace many federal workers in key public service roles, according to Cliff Jurkiewicz, vice president of global strategy at Phenom, a company specializing in AI-enabled human resources.While its impressive to see such a significant investment by the federal government and private businesses into the nations AI infrastructure, the downside is that it has the potential to disenfranchise federal workers who are not properly trained and ready to use AI, Jurkiewicz said. Federal employees need training to use AI effectively; it cant just be imposed on them.Stargate will speed up what Jurkiewcz called the Great Recalibration a shift in how work is performed through an human-AI partnership. Over the next 12 to 18 months, businesses will realize they cant fully replace human knowledge and experience with technology, since machines dont perceive the world as we do, he said.The move could put smaller AI companies at a competitive disadvantage by stifling innovation, Jurkiewicz said. Stargate could also deepen inequities, as those who know how to use AI will have a significant advantage over those who dont.Removing AI regulations, however, wont inherently lead to a completely unbridled technology that can mimic human intelligence in areas such as learning, reasoning, and problem-solving.Commercial risk will drive responsible AI, with investment and success shaped by the private market and state regulations, according to Gartner. Industry commitments and consortia will advance AI safety and development to meet societal needs, independent of federal or state policies.AI unleashed to become Skynet?Some predict AI will become as ubiquitous as electricity or the internet, in that it will eventually be operating behind the scenes and woven into everyday life, silently powering countless systems and services without drawing much attention.Im sure the whole Terminator thing could happen. I dont consider it likely, said John Veitch, dean of the School of Business and Management at Notre Dame de Namur in Belmont, CA. I see lots of positive things with AI and taking the guardrails off of it.Regulating something as transformative as AI is challenging, much like the early internet. If we had foreseen social medias impact in 1999, would we have done things differently? I dont know, Veitch said.Given AIs complexity, less regulation might be better than more, at least for now, he said.AI is valuable as the US faces an aging population and a shrinking labor force, Veitch said. With skilled workers harder to find and expensive to hire, AI can replace call centers or assist admissions teams, offering cost-effective solutions. For example, Notre Dame de Namurs admissions team uses generative AI to follow up on enrollment requests.Trumps executive order prioritizes sovereign AI affecting the private market, while shifting most regulatory oversight to state and local governments. For example, New York plans to restrict government use of AI for automated decisions without human monitoring, while Colorados new AI law, effective in 2026, will require businesses to inform consumers when theyre interacting with AI, Gartners Jones said.The revocation of Bidens 2023 order reduces federal oversight of model development, removing requirements such as submitting safety training results or sending notifications about large-scale computer cluster acquisitions, which could encourage faster innovation, according to Jones. Thus, it was not a surprise to see the Stargate announcement and the related public-private commitments, she said.Strengthening sovereign AI, Jones said, will boost public-private partnerships like Stargate to maintain US competitiveness and tech leadership.What enterprises should focus onNow that the regulatory buck has been passed to states, so to speak, organizations should monitor US state AI executive orders, laws, and pending legislation, focusing on mandates that differentiate genAI from other AI techniques and apply to government use, according to a Gartner report.We have already seen diverse concerns unique to individual state goals across the nearly 700 pieces of state-level AI-proposed legislation in 2024 alone, Gartner said.According to Gartner:By 2029, 10% of corporate boards globally are expected to use AI to challenge key executive decisions.By 2027, Fortune 500 companies will redirect $500 billion from energy operating expenses to microgrids to address energy risks and AI demands.By 2027, 15% of new applications will be fully generated by AI, up from 0% today.Executives should identify patterns in new laws, especially those addressing AI biases or errors, and align responsible AI with company goals. Companies are also being urged to document AI decision-making and manage high-risk use cases to ensure compliance and reduce harm.Organizations should also assess opportunities and risks from federal investments in AI and IT modernization. For global operations, companies will need to monitor AI initiatives in regions like the EU, UK, China, and India, Gartner said.Striking a balance between AI innovation and safety will be challenging, as it will be essential to apply the appropriate level of regulation, the researcher said. Until the new administration determines this balance, state governments will continue to lead the way in issuing regulations focusing on AI innovation and safety-centric measures that impact US enterprises.

Its game on as Epic takes a direct stab at both Apple and Google with its latest overture to woo developers to offer content via the European Epic games store; the company will pay so customers can play in an attempt to exploit the EUs Digital Markets Act (DMA), which hasforced Apple to open up more.Apple charges developers who want to sell games outside of the App Store a small fee once game installations achieve 1 million downloads during a year. Applenotesthat the Core Technology Fee is not applied in numerous cases:No fee is applied to free apps.No fee is applied to apps from nonprofits, educational institutions, or government entities.Theres no charge for the first 1 million app installs.Small developers (classified as those earning under $10 million in global business revenue) get a three-year fee on ramp, which means they wont pay the CTF during the first three years.No fees are applied for patches and updates, and users are not charged when they reinstall their apps using iCloud transfer.With those restrictions, its pretty clear that as taxes go, the vast majority of entities dont pay any tax at all when they choose to distribute applications using the CTF process.Which puts Epics offer in perspective.What Epic is doingHeres that offer:Epics mobile store will open to any game developer seeking distribution later this year.For one year, Epic will pay the Apple Core Technology Fee for participants in its free games program.The first 20 games to make it to Epics store are set to appear in the coming weeks.Our aim here isnt just to launch a bunch of different stores in different places, but to build a single, cross-platform store in which, within the era of multi-platform games, if you buy a game or digital items in one place, you have the ability to own them everywhere,Epic CEO Tim Sweeney told The Verge.The idea that you can buy once to play anywhere is probably the best argument for openness Ive heard yet. Well see if it turns out that way.Another strong argument to Epics approach is that Apples CTF arrangement means that a developer of multiple apps is more likely to cross that 1 million download threshold, as it is applied across their app catalog, rather than per app. Apple also seeks that CTF fee for downloads across every store.Who really benefits?All the same, once you do the math, it should be clear that the vast majority of developers already pay nothing when they choose to offer up apps including games through Apples App Store, or even via third-party stores in the regions in which they can. In fact, the games publishers most likely to pay these fees will be the largest publishers, particularly those who have succeeded in developing strong in-app economies. (Some games, such as Diablo Immortal, really take that to the extreme, with gamers complaining the entire game is overtly built around convincing people to spend money in-game).But, what Epic is doing with this offer is directly pitching its own app distribution service to the largest games developers who are already making good money through Apples ecosystem. As I see it, the offer gives Epic a chance grab a slice of lucrative future income, while hitting Apple where it feels it most revenue.In business terms, that makes sense.At the same time, by positioning itself as some kind of freedom fighter, Epic manages to make this commercially-driven grab for revenue allow it toappear to be the good guy in the story. Though as most conflict resolution experts will probably tell you, everyone on every side is usually the hero in their own story.Apple thinks it is a hero, too.Whats really going on here is agame of millionaires, with well-heeled companies on all sides strenuously negotiating for different business terms so that revenue is shared differently. Epics making a probably accurate guess that the biggest App Store earners probably dont care much that if they dont pay more, smaller developers will have to do so.Nor, I think, do these commercial entities worry much that while consumers might get slightly better deals in some ways, they will eventually find they end up paying more for the same experience. Smaller developers landed with rising platform-related development costs will just charge customers more, and Apple will seek to guard its own bottom line.It always does.End result?Sure, you might find some developers racing off to Epics store, convinced by all the Apple Tax rhetoric until they eventually find they are paying a different tax to Epic instead. Some larger developers will go all-in on third-party outlets, offering inducements to bring consumers across. It wont be too long until Epic reaches its target 100 million store users, as people will probably follow the content.Eventually, people will get their software at Epics, Apples, and other stores, all with varying tech support and security levels, and Apple will stillreceive the first panic callsfrom the consumers who dont understand who to call when things go wrong.Apple will legitimately argue that it should be compensated for this tech support, as well as platform and ecosystem development. However, if it fails to win that argument, you can anticipate the cost of both developing on and purchasing its platforms will increase. Dont neglect that it wasnt really that long ago Applecharged for operating system upgrades. It could do so again.What I think will happen is that in exchange for buying apps you can use across platforms (good), and slightly better income for developers (also good), most prices wont change that much, other costs will increase, and while Apples App Store power may be mitigated somewhat, the security environment will degrade. No matter, however, as at least a handful of millionaires will have a few more dollars, while the cost of that wealth transfer will ultimately be shouldered by the group all sides claim to care about, consumers who simply want to use apps on their devices. This will not be a redemption song.You can follow me on social media! Join me onBlueSky, LinkedIn,Mastodon, andMeWe.

The AI community is abuzz over DeepSeek R1, a new open-source reasoning model.The model was developed by the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, which claims that R1 matches or even surpasses OpenAIs ChatGPT o1 on multiple key benchmarks but operates at a fraction of the cost.This could be a truly equalizing breakthrough that is great for researchers and developers with limited resources, especially those from the Global South, says Hancheng Cao, an assistant professor in information systems at Emory University.DeepSeeks success is even more remarkable given the constraints facing Chinese AI companies in the form of increasing US export controls on cutting-edge chips. But early evidence shows that these measures are not working as intended. Rather than weakening Chinas AI capabilities, the sanctions appear to be driving startups like DeepSeek to innovate in ways that prioritize efficiency, resource-pooling, and collaboration.To create R1, DeepSeek had to rework its training process to reduce the strain on its GPUs, a variety released by Nvidia for the Chinese market that have their performance capped at half the speed of its top products, according to Zihan Wang, a former DeepSeek employee and current PhD student in computer science at Northwestern University.DeepSeek R1 has been praised by researchers for its ability to tackle complex reasoning tasks, particularly in mathematics and coding. The model employs a chain of thought approach similar to that used by ChatGPT o1, which lets it solve problems by processing queries step by step.Dimitris Papailiopoulos, principal researcher at Microsofts AI Frontiers research lab, says what surprised him the most about R1 is its engineering simplicity. DeepSeek aimed for accurate answers rather than detailing every logical step, significantly reducing computing time while maintaining a high level of effectiveness, he says.DeepSeek has also released six smaller versions of R1 that are small enough to run locally on laptops. It claims that one of them even outperforms OpenAIs o1-mini on certain benchmarks.DeepSeek has largely replicated o1-mini and has open sourced it, tweeted Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas. DeepSeek did not reply to MIT Technology Reviews request for comments.Despite the buzz around R1, DeepSeek remains relatively unknown. Based in Hangzhou, China, it was founded in July 2023 by Liang Wenfeng, an alumnus of Zhejiang University with a background in information and electronic engineering. It was incubated by High-Flyer, a hedge fund that Liang founded in 2015. Like Sam Altman of OpenAI, Liang aims to build artificial general intelligence (AGI), a form of AI that can match or even beat humans on a range of tasks.Training large language models (LLMs) requires a team of highly trained researchers and substantial computing power. In a recent interview with the Chinese media outlet LatePost, Kai-Fu Lee, a veteran entrepreneur and former head of Google China, said that only front-row players typically engage in building foundation models such as ChatGPT, as its so resource-intensive. The situation is further complicated by the US export controls on advanced semiconductors. High-Flyers decision to venture into AI is directly related to these constraints, however. Long before the anticipated sanctions, Liang acquired a substantial stockpile of Nvidia A100 chips, a type now banned from export to China. The Chinese media outlet 36Kr estimates that the company has over 10,000 units in stock, but Dylan Patel, founder of the AI research consultancy SemiAnalysis, estimates that it has at least 50,000. Recognizing the potential of this stockpile for AI training is what led Liang to establish DeepSeek, which was able to use them in combination with the lower-power chips to develop its models.Tech giants like Alibaba and ByteDance, as well as a handful of startups with deep-pocketed investors, dominate the Chinese AI space, making it challenging for small or medium-sized enterprises to compete. A company like DeepSeek, which has no plans to raise funds, is rare.Zihan Wang, the former DeepSeek employee, told MIT Technology Review that he had access to abundant computing resources and was given freedom to experiment when working at DeepSeek, a luxury that few fresh graduates would get at any company.In an interview with the Chinese media outlet 36Kr in July 2024 Liang said that an additional challenge Chinese companies face on top of chip sanctions, is that their AI engineering techniques tend to be less efficient. We [most Chinese companies] have to consume twice the computing power to achieve the same results. Combined with data efficiency gaps, this could mean needing up to four times more computing power. Our goal is to continuously close these gaps, he said.But DeepSeek found ways to reduce memory usage and speed up calculation without significantly sacrificing accuracy. The team loves turning a hardware challenge into an opportunity for innovation, says Wang.Liang himself remains deeply involved in DeepSeeks research process, running experiments alongside his team. The whole team shares a collaborative culture and dedication to hardcore research, Wang says.As well as prioritizing efficiency, Chinese companies are increasingly embracing open-source principles. Alibaba Cloud has released over 100 new open-source AI models, supporting 29 languages and catering to various applications, including coding and mathematics. Similarly, startups like Minimax and 01.AI have open-sourced their models.According to a white paper released last year by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, a state-affiliated research institute, the number of AI large language models worldwide has reached 1,328, with 36% originating in China. This positions China as the second-largest contributor to AI, behind the United States.This generation of young Chinese researchers identify strongly with open-source culture because they benefit so much from it, says Thomas Qitong Cao, an assistant professor of technology policy at Tufts University.The US export control has essentially backed Chinese companies into a corner where they have to be far more efficient with their limited computing resources, says Matt Sheehan, an AI researcher at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. We are probably going to see a lot of consolidation in the future related to the lack of compute.That might already have started to happen. Two weeks ago, Alibaba Cloud announced that it has partnered with the Beijing-based startup 01.AI, founded by Kai-Fu Lee, to merge research teams and establish an industrial large model laboratory.It is energy-efficient and natural for some kind of division of labor to emerge in the AI industry, says Cao, the Tufts professor. The rapid evolution of AI demands agility from Chinese firms to survive.

Apple's iOS 18 is improving the user experience with AI-powered tools, deeper customization, and enhanced privacy, driving strong adoption across iPhones and iPads.iPhone 15The iOS 18 update brings AI-powered tools, deeper customization, and enhanced privacy. Currently, 76% of iPhones released in the last four years and 68% of all iPhones are running the latest OS.The latest OS, iOS 18, has matched its predecessor in overall adoption, with 76% of iPhones from the past four years and 68% of all iPhones now running the software. In comparison, iOS 17 reached the same 76% adoption rate for newer devices in February 2024 but fell short of iOS 16's performance during a reflect a solid uptake, iOS 17 achieved higher adoption in the similar timeframe. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo continues to offer insights into the iPhone 17, this time saying that Dynamic Island isn't getting a redesign.Dynamic Island on iPhone 14 ProIt's 2025 which means we're beginning the nine-month march toward the iPhone 17. As a result, we're seeing an influx of rumors and leaks surrounding the next-gen iPhone.This one comes from Ming-Chi Kuo, who posted on X on Friday that he believes Dynamic Island size isn't changing much, if any, across the iPhone 17 lineup. Rumor Score: Likely Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

The City of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has announced the appointment of developer Steve Soboroff to serve as the new Chief Recovery Officer to spearhead its response to wildfire disasters that destroyed over 12,000 structures in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena earlier this month. Soboroff, who in the past had been criticized for the environmental impact of his massive Playa Vista development on the citys Westside, will be responsible for "recommending a comprehensive City strategy" and coordinating the now expedited rebuilding process for those in the affected areas.He will also create an "all solutions in" resource-sharing system for commercial and residential rebuilds, in addition to a "detailed program" that covers the city's public libraries and parks systems.In a brief statement,Soboroff said: "Our mission is to start building a clear, practical and doable path to the Palisades and everywhere help is needed in LA."

The total number of construction starts decreased by 2% in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.2 trillion according to the latest Dodge Construction Network (DCN) survey.Nonresidential building starts grew by 2%, nonbuilding starts were 14% lower, and residential building starts grew by 4%. On a year-to-date basis through December, total construction starts were up 6%, nonresidential starts were up 4%, residential starts were up 7%, and nonbuilding starts were up by 7%.For the 12 months ending in December 2024, total construction starts were up 6% from the 12 months ending in December 2023. Residential starts were up 7%, nonresidential starts were up 4% and nonbuilding starts rose 7% over the same period.Related on Archinect: Construction spending to slow dramatically through 2026, says AIA"Rate cuts prior to December supported some momentum in multifamily and commercial starts over the month," stated Sarah Martin, associate director of forecasting at Dodge C...