Owners of some early Apple Watch models may be eligible for payment from a $20 million class action settlement. Apple recently agreed to settle a lawsuit that claimed some first generation, Series 1, Series 2, and Series 3 Apple Watches had battery swelling issues that could have caused damage to the devices. The company has denied any wrongdoing and in a statement to TechCrunch said it strongly disagrees with the claims made in the lawsuit, but nonetheless agreed to settle to avoid further litigation. The exact amount of the payments will depend on how many claimants ultimately end up being involved, but its expected to be between $20 to $50 per eligible device.Theres a full breakdown of eligibility and deadlines on the website for the class action lawsuit, but the main thing to know is that in order to receive payment, you must have reported the issue to Apple in the US between April 24, 2015, and February 6, 2024. Settlement Class Members will receive a payment without the need to submit a claim form, the website notes. You just need to submit your payment information through the settlement website (here) by April 10. Notices of eligibility will be sent out by mail and email.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/apple-has-agreed-to-pay-20-million-to-settle-a-class-action-lawsuit-over-apple-watch-battery-swelling-175616623.html?src=rss

New releases to add to your reading list. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/what-to-read-this-weekend-engrossing-literary-horror-and-a-dark-whimsical-new-comic-series-175906806.html?src=rss

The latest model plugged into ChatGPT offers improved reasoning at faster speeds, and everyone gets it.

Google is getting better at spotting malicious Android apps, thanks to AI.

Shoe brand Veja's Brooklyn store by local studio Office JDY features lime-plaster walls and displays, exposed brickwork and an outdoor courtyard wrapped in red-coloured wood.The French footwear company's Williamsburg space was outfitted to reflect its "sustainability-focused ethos and minimalist aesthetic", according to Office JDY.The building's original materials including red brick, concrete blocks and plaster were left exposed in the open sales floorThe studio left much of the single-storey building's original materials untouched, exposing red bricks, concrete blocks and plasterwork across two walls in the open sales floor.Another wall and a stepped display in front were covered in a custom lime plaster mix developed in collaboration with local craftspeople.A 37-foot-long, C-shaped white display shelf is mounted on the brick wallA single white shelf with a C-shaped section is affixed to the brick surface opposite, displaying more pairs of trainers along its 37-foot (11.3-metre) length."The resulting amalgamation of different colors and textures serves as a background to the white sales surfaces, which are the only 'new' finishes in the store," said Office JDY.A lime plaster mix covers two walls, while a white oak-clad repair shop is located in the backRectangular solid white oak benches for shoppers to use while trying on shoes are arranged across the buffed concrete floor.The same wood variety forms a counter and storage for a repair shop in the back, which offers to mend Veja products and other shoes.Read: Plantea Estudio designs intentionally unfinished Veja store "to look like we didn't do anything"The building's masonry exterior was repainted, and a large storefront window and pivot entrance door were installed "to provide a dramatic view into the space", the studio said.An adjacent courtyard was also transformed to host outdoor events and activations, using red-hued wood panels, globe-shaped lights and a pergola.The outdoor courtyard is enclosed by red-hued panels and partially covered with a pergola"Brightly painted and oversized shingles contrast with the calm interior and enclose two storage areas, while the new pergola structure in the rear of the yard incorporates retractable shades," said Office JDY.Veja was founded in Paris in 2004, but didn't open its first dedicated retail space until 2023.A large storefront window and pivoting door were added to the repainted street facadeLike the Brooklyn location, this store in Madrid was designed to look intentionally unfinished by Plantea Estudio.Williamsburg is a popular spot for apparel retailers, with brands like Everlane and Kith also maintaining outposts in the neighbourhood.The photography is by Eric Petschek.Project credits:Architecture: Office JDY Yannik Neufang, principal; Daniel Selensky, principal; Pej Gombert, designerInterior design: Office JDY (same team as above)MEP engineering: Collaborative Engineering Office Simon Looi, principalLighting design: The SEED Golsana Heshmati, principal; Lindsey Dieter, design director and project manager; Sarah Gentile, designerConstruction: 212 Renovations GroupMillwork/cabinetry: 212 Renovations GroupPlaster: Kamp StudioThe post Office JDY designs minimalist Veja store in Williamsburg appeared first on Dezeen.

Continuing the Artemis program and using its planned lunar space station as a staging post would be a more energy efficient but slower way to reach Mars, and its unlikely to be Elon Musks preference.

Operator, a new computer-using tool from OpenAI, is brittle and occasionally erratic, but it points to a future of powerful A.I. agents.

Casa Loma: Millionaires, Medievalism, and Modernity in Torontos Gilded AgeEdited by Matthew M. Reeve and Michael Windover (MQUP, 2023)Casa Lomas complex relationship with the past has long made documenting its history a difficult task. Extended periods in a derelict state, numerous changes of management, and poor record-keeping have all conspired towards the buildings story remaining piecemeal. Matthew Reeves, Michael Windover, and several contributing authors have finally given Torontos famous castle the comprehensive, scholarly attention it has long deserved.Opening chapters highlight the context informing the castles conception in the early 1900s, and emphasize the design approach of its patron, Sir Henry Pellattfounder of the Toronto Electric Light Company and an early investor in the Canadian Pacific Railroad and the North West Land Company, and builder of Canadas first hydro-generating plant at Niagara Fallsand Canadian architect E.J. Lennox. Adorned with battlements and equipped with secret passageways, their creation paid homage to Europes castles.In its early years, Sir Henry Pellatt and Lady Pellatt used their home to host extravagant military and arts events for the wealthy, who strived for associations with British imperialism, at a time when the city was becoming increasingly independent and modern.The book then turns to the history of the castle from 1920 to the present day. A particularly noteworthy discussion examines the many failed plans for the castle throughout its life, including proposals to develop it as a war museum and art gallery, and to expand it as a high-end hotel.As a whole, the book documents the gradual transition of Casa Loma from being the citys preeminent private address playing host to the elite few, to a now popular quasi-public event venue and tourist attraction. Special attention to the changing social, cultural and political factors informing the city and its relationship with the castle underpin the story. In this way, the book also documents the development of a nation originally anxious with its British roots at the turn of the 19th centuryto one that has comfortably grown into its own, as reflected by its architecture, over a hundred years later.Wonderfully illustrated with rare drawings and perspectives, Casa Loma is a thorough look at an eclectic architectural icon of Torontoa relic from the last moments of Old World aristocracy in Toronto, and a place that remains a curiosity as the city around it continues to outgrow its past.As appeared in theFebruary 2025issue of Canadian Architect magazine The post Book Review: Casa LomaMillionaires, Medievalism, and Modernity in Torontos Gilded Age appeared first on Canadian Architect.

An Alliterative Lexicon of Architectural MemoriesAlberto Prez-Gmez (Rightangle International, 2024)In his latest work, architectural historian and theoretician Alberto Prez-Gmez has employed dictionary definitions, autobiographical musings, and poetic fantasies to create a compendium on meaning in architecture. The two volumes are also an excursion through many architectural sites that Prez-Gmez has visited over his career.In a brief introduction, Prez-Gmez notes that the books were a transitional project, following his retirement from McGill. Using James Stevens Curls Oxford Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (2000) as a starting point, he selected a personal set of architectural terms to explore. The resulting tomes are expansive and hopeful, full of carefully remembered experiences and references to the roles of sensuality, imagination, and history in architectural making.When it comes to architectural language, the vocabulary abounds. Prez-Gmezs lexicon includes exotic terms from the classical and medieval eras like apadana, encarpus, fleuron, hypogeum, loculus, modillion, perron, serliana, and telamon. The volumes also include a much smaller number of terms from the modernist era, such as bton, bunker, Deconstructivism, Functionalism, grid, hyperbolic paraboloid, piloti, shopping centre, skyscraper, and whiplash.Small photographs accompany the entries, which are framed by Prez-Gmezs abiding commitment to phenomenology, surrealism, and hermeneutics. Ultimately, they are a summation of Prez-Gmezs thoughts about architecture, from the present to the past, from the near to the far, from the little to the big. Describing the word architecture itself, he writes: Architecture is an atmosphere that advances knowledge of the good and beautiful through cognitive feeling, the ancient cross-sensory aesthsis, while at the same time providing an appropriate and alluring ambience for the events of life as lived, bringing real understanding to embodied consciousnessThe texts invite the reader to meander through time, space, and meaning. As Prez-Gmez demonstrates, architecture has a rich history of terms specific to the discipline, and architecture, among many other functions, always participates in language. The question is: is the language employed rich or poor? The books remind us that the continuing education of an architect demands that the precise languages of architecture be learned, in order to create coherence, legibility, and vitality.This late career gift to architecture underscores how lucky Canada has been to have Prez-Gmezthe highest calibre of educator, speaker, thinker, and writerinhabiting its spaces for so many years. The significance of Prez-Gmezs achievements was appropriately acknowledged when he received the Order of Canada in 2022. The two books are a trove of erudition and memories from a life passionately devoted to architecture and all that it encompasses: the culmination of a lifelong quest for eloquent architecture.As appeared in theFebruary 2025issue of Canadian Architect magazine The post Book Review: An Alliterative Lexicon of Architectural Memories appeared first on Canadian Architect.

President Donald Trump has fired Rohit Chopra, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). In a letter posted to X, Chopra confirmed his term as CFPB Director has concluded. Chopra was notified of his removal via an email from the White House, according to a report from the Associated Press.During Chopras tenure, which began in 2021, the CFPB took an aggressive approach to regulating tech companies and financial institutions. The CFPB most recently proposed limiting data brokers ability to sell personal data in the US. It sued major US banks for widespread fraud on Zelle and also issued a rule that would put digital payment services like Apple Pay, Google Wallet, and PayPal under bank-like supervision something its now facing a lawsuit over.It's been an honor serving as your @CFPB Director.Every day, Americans from across the country shared their ideas and experiences with us. You helped us hold powerful companies & their executives accountable for breaking the law, and you made our work better.Thank you. pic.twitter.com/JD7lIcwmHa Rohit Chopra (@chopracfpb) February 1, 2025Trump was widely expected to fire Chopra before the directors term came to an end in October 2026. With so much power concentrated in the hands of a few, agencies like the CFPB have never been more critical,Chopra wrote in his letter. Weve led efforts across the government to stop the scourge of junk fees in banking and across sectors of the economy, to tame the harmful impacts of medical bills riddled with errors, and to limit the creep of surveillance by data brokers that puts our sensitive data in the hands of foreign adversaries.Since taking office last month, Trump has pushed out many of the officials appointed by the Biden administration, replacing them with his own allies. Elon Musk, who is leading the governments efforts to cut spending, said the US should delete the CFPB last year.Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) responded to Chopras departure by saying Trump will need a strong CFPB and a strong CFPB director to achieve goals of capping credit card interest rates and lowering costs. If President Trump and Republicans decide to cower to Wall Street billionaires and destroy the agency, they will have a fight on their hands, Warren said.