Imagine walking up to your front door and it unlocks even opens automatically as you approach. It may sound like the stuff of smart home dreams, but it could soon be a reality, thanks to ultra-wideband (UWB) technology arriving on smart locks. With its precise, real-time location capabilities, UWB enables a smart lock to react to the presence of your phone or smartwatch as you approach your door, unlocking it with no intervention on your part. Both the lock and your device need a UWB chip, but this touchless experience means theres no need to pull out your phone, fiddle with keycodes, fingerprints, or, god forbid, an actual key.I got to demo the first locks to support the wireless communication protocol at CES last month, and I am ready for my hands-free smart lock future.Fast, easy, and frictionless, hands-free unlocking is the kind of convenience the smart home needsI test a lot of smart door locks and havent used a house key in a decade. But unlocking my front door still isnt a frictionless experience: fingerprint readers are fast but can be finicky, Home Key is smooth but limited to Apple devices, keycodes slow me down, and palm readers and facial scanning still feel like overkill.Turning a device thats almost always on me, such as my phone or watch, into a key that can magically tell my door its me, without my having to lift a finger or stare awkwardly into a camera, feels as frictionless as it can get.Apple and Samsung appear to agree with me; both are adding support for UWB unlocking at the OS level for their smartphones and watches. Apple introduced it with iOS 18, and Samsung says its wallet feature will support Digital Home Keys using NFC and UWB later this year. Both companies also plan to support the upcoming Aliro standard that will provide a secure handshake between the lock and your phone (more on Aliro shortly).This is a good sign that this technology is set to go mainstream. All we need now are some smart locks that work with it.RelatedAt CES, I tried out two UWB-powered locks, the Ultraloq Bolt Mission and the Schlage Sense Pro. Even in the RF hell that is the show floor, both unlocked automatically as I approached. Carrying a phone in my hand in one instance and in a bag in another, the locks responded a few seconds before I arrived at them, which, in the real world, would make it simple to then turn the handle and walk in. How far away I was from the lock when each unlocked was down to how the manufacturer implements the UWB technology. For the Ultraloq demo, the Bolt Mission activated at one meter (about three feet). The Schlage Sense Pro responded to my velocity, opening based on how quickly I approached.The Schlage Sense Pro is the companys first lock to support UWB unlocking. Other entry methods include a digital keypad and tap-to-unlock over NFC. The company says the lock will support the Aliro standard when it launches later this year. Image: SchlageThe company says this is due to its proprietary algorithm, Schlage Converge, which unlocks the door at the right moment based on your velocity i.e., whether youre running (which I wasnt able to do in a Venetian hotel suite) or ambling up to the door.Both locks have alternative methods for unlocking, supporting NFC for tap-to-unlock with your phone or watch, Matter for integration with smart home platforms, and, of course, theres an app for controlling the lock. The Ultraloq also has a physical keypad and a keyway, and the Schlage has a touchscreen keypad but no keyway.The crucial difference with UWB compared to all the other unlocking solutions is that you dont have to wait a beat or two at the door for it to unlock. Fast, easy, and frictionless, hands-free auto-unlocking is the kind of convenience the smart home needs. Effectively, its your home responding to you. And while its not technically hands-free you still have to turn the doorknob the future where your door unlocks and opens may be here sooner than youd think.It knows exactly where you areA UWB lock can communicate with a UWB-equipped phone or smartwatch to unlock automatically as the device approaches. Image: UltraloqCurrently used in digital car keys and Apple products, including AirTags and AirPods, UWB is a radar-based technology that can accurately locate devices down to a few centimeters. Using active ranging between two UWB radios for example, a lock and your smartphone it sends wideband radio waves over high frequencies to identify the position and angle of approach of a device in real time. When youre carrying your compatible phone or wearing a compatible smartwatch in range of a UWB smart lock, the lock will first connect to the device over Bluetooth, then activate its UWB radio to identify your precise position and your angle and direction of approach.This precise proximity unlocking means the lock should only unlock as you walk toward the door from the outside, not as youre walking away, not if you pause before you get to the door, and not if youre approaching from the inside. Similarly, if youre crossing back and forth while, say, mowing the lawn or playing soccer in your front yard, the lock should stay locked. This is a significant improvement over existing auto-unlocking technologies.UWB gives us that precision within literally inches of the door. We think that delivers a more secure hands-free unlock experience.Auto-unlocking is not a new concept for smart locks it was a flagship feature of August smart locks when they launched in 2013 and has since been used by several other manufacturers. However, these implementations use a trifecta of radios (Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS) combined with an app that needs to be running in the background on your phone to determine your location.In my experience, the existing hands-free auto-unlocking is spotty and frustrating to use, and I dont recommend relying on it. Ive tested it on several locks from different manufacturers and found that it will sometimes activate when Ive been standing at my door for a few seconds, sometimes fail completely, and at other times, attempt to unlock after Ive walked into the house. Rarely does it unlock as I approach.As a local radio-to-radio communication, UWB promises to be faster, more secure, and crucially more accurate. Theres a lot of variability when youre using Bluetooth signal strength to auto unlock the lock. You could, in one setting, be three feet away, and it will unlock or you could be 10 feet away, Tim Eskew, director of residential electronic products at Schlage, told me. Theres too much variability from our perspective in that solution, whether thats Bluetooth or Wi-Fi or geofencing with GPS.This graphic shows how a UWB-powered smart lock first connects to a phone or device over Bluetooth, enabling the UWB radios active ranging to trigger the door unlocking sequence. Image: Fira ConsortiumBecause of these flaws, Schlage is one of the few smart lock companies that hasnt implemented an auto-unlock feature on its smart locks until now. UWB gives us that precision within literally inches of the door. We think that delivers a more secure hands-free unlock experience, he says.Of course, I wont know for sure how accurate it is until I get to test these locks in the real world, but the companies Ive spoken to about the tech seem confident that its speed and accuracy are game-changers. RelatedThe downside of UWB technology is that you need a phone or watch with a UWB chip built in, along with a smart lock that supports it. While there are several of the former, there are very few of the latter. In fact, only three have been announced, and you cant buy any yet. When they do go on sale, theyre going to be expensive. So far, the cheapest is the Lockly Secure Pro UWB Duet Series at $380, which was announced at CES and is slated to arrive in Q4 of this year. The Ultraloq Bolt Mission UWB I demoed, which the company says will ship this quarter, costs $400. The Schlage Sense Pro doesnt have a price or release date yet other than this year but its not going to be cheap.NFC first, UWB soonApple Home Key tap-to-unlock uses the NFC chip in your phone or watch and in the lock to unlock your door. Photo by Dan Seifert / The VergeWith integration in the operating system of phones and smartwatches, UWB in smart locks will see wider adoption within the next year. This will be driven by a new industry standard called Aliro.Being developed by Apple, Samsung, and Google, along with major lock and chip manufacturers, Aliro is a communication protocol that enables a secure, local credential exchange between your phone or watch and your smart lock, regardless of manufacturer. The initial spec will support NFC and UWB unlocking, and bring security for your smart lock to the system level of your phone.However, its early days for Aliro, and the spec hasnt even launched yet. Only Schlage has confirmed that its Sense Pro will support the standard (its parent company, Allegion, is one of the founders of Aliro). Lockly has said its lock will work with Android phones at launch, with support for iOS devices coming later.Aliro will bring Apples Home Key experience to Samsung and Google phones and smartwatchesUltraloqs Bolt wont support Aliro at all, but the company plans to release a lock later this year that will. We saw an opportunity to deliver an experience that supports Android and iPhone and be the first to market, Matt Brown of Ultraloq told me. With these standards still evolving or not quite here yet, our view is we cant let that slow down innovation.The Aliro spec should arrive this year, according to companies I spoke to at CES, and it should be a big step toward turning our phones and watches into secure keys for our homes, no matter who made them. Assuming that all of the mobile platforms adopt Aliro, its going to give a broader choice of either the tap-to-unlock experience or the unlock-on-approach experience, says Eskew.Tap-to-unlock is Apples Home Key, where you tap your watch or phone on the lock for access. It uses NFC but is currently limited to Apple devices and a handful of locks (Schlages Encode Plus being one of the best options). Aliro will standardize tap-to-unlock and bring it to Samsung and Google phones and smartwatches. We are excited that Aliro will broaden that capability and bring that experience to more users across mobile platforms, says Eskew.RelatedIf youre not sold on hands-free unlocking or want a backup, tap-to-unlock will be a good option. In fact, initially, Aliros main focus is cross-platform NFC support. According to Matt Lovett, director of engineering at Assa Abloy the worlds largest lock manufacturer and active in developing Aliro the current way the standard is evolving indicates Aliro will require locks to support NFC, but UWB will be an optional feature. As the newer, more expensive technology with less existing hardware support, UWB being optional makes sense for the nascent standard. However, bringing support for NFC in smart locks to more phone manufacturers and broadening the adoption of tap-to-unlock will also drive the adoption of UWB. If you find tap-to-unlock super handy, imagine how handy youll find not even having to tap.Ultimately, UWB and NFC work similarly, with both technologies acting as location verification, says Lovett. Aliro then provides the secure credentials, authenticating that this device is authorized to unlock this door. The main difference between the technologies is that UWB removes the physical interaction.Of course, if you dont have a device on you, or if you want to give someone else access to your lock, youll need a third unlocking option, such as a keypad or NFC tag, fingerprint reader, or yes, maybe even a traditional key.Hands-free for real one dayThe Halo Select is Kwiksets latest smart lock. It supports Matter and Thread for smart home control. The Halo Select Plus, with NFC support, is coming in 2025, and the company hinted it is working on a UWB lock, too. Image: KwiksetAssa Abloy owns Kwikset, which, along with Schlage, is one of the most popular residential lock brands in the US. At CES, Jeff Sandoval, director of marketing at Assa Abloy, told me that Kwikset is planning to bring a UWB lock to market as the technology matures. They plan to take a slow and steady approach to the new technology, as they did with launching a Matter-over-Thread smart lock. The fact that two of the largest lock brands in the US are looking to UWB over some of the other solutions weve seen in smart locks is a strong signal that this is the future of smart locks. Most interestingly, Sandoval hinted that Kwikset sees an in-stride unlocking experience as the ultimate goal where the door not only unlocks but also opens as you approach. Smart lock maker Nuki offers a completely hands-free experience in Europe, with GPS-based unlocking on a lock that can control multi-turn latches so it effectively turns the knob as well as unlocks the lock. While bringing this truly hands-free experience to US deadbolt locks will require a different solution, Sandoval says there are existing technologies that will get us to that Star Trek moment. And it all starts with UWB. See More:

Agentic AI gains much value from the capacity to reason about complex environments and make informed decisions with minimal human input. The first article of this five-part series focused on how agents perceive their surroundings and store relevant knowledge. This second article explores how that input and context are transformed into purposeful actions. The Reasoning/Decision-Making Module is the systems dynamic mind, guiding autonomous behavior across diverse domains, from conversation-based assistants to robotic platforms navigating physical spaces.This module can be viewed as the bridge between observed reality and the agents objectives. It takes preprocessed signals, images turned into feature vectors, text converted into embeddings, sensor readings filtered for noise, and consults existing knowledge to interpret the current situation. Based on that interpretation, it projects hypothetical outcomes of possible actions and selects one that best aligns with its goals, constraints, or rules. In short, it closes the feedback loop that begins with raw perception and ends with real-world or digital execution.Reasoning and Decision-Making in ContextIn everyday life, humans integrate learned knowledge and immediate observations to make decisions, from trivial choices like selecting a meal to high-stakes considerations such as steering a car to avoid an accident. Agentic AI aims to replicate, and sometimes exceed, this adaptive capability by weaving together multiple computational strategies under a unified framework. Traditional rule-based systems, known for their explicit logical structure, can handle well-defined problems and constraints but often falter in dynamic contexts where new and unexpected scenarios arise. Machine learning, by contrast, provides flexibility and can learn from data, but in certain situations, it may offer less transparency or guarantee of correctness.Agentic AI unites these approaches. Reinforcement learning (RL) can teach an agent to refine its behavior over time by interacting with an environment, maximizing rewards that measure success. Meanwhile, large language models (LLMs) such as GPT-4 add a new dimension by allowing agents to use conversation-like steps, sometimes called chain-of-thought reasoning, to interpret intricate instructions or ambiguous tasks. Combined, these methods produce a system that can respond robustly to unforeseen situations while adhering to basic rules and constraints.Classical vs. Modern ApproachesClassical Symbolic ReasoningHistorically, AI researchers focused heavily on symbolic reasoning, where knowledge is encoded as rules or facts in a symbolic language. Systems like expert shells and rule-based engines parse these symbols and apply logical inference (forward chaining, backward chaining) to arrive at conclusions.Strengths: High interpretability, deterministic behavior, and ease of integrating strict domain knowledge.Limitations: Difficulty handling uncertainty, scalability challenges, and brittleness when faced with unexpected inputs or scenarios.Symbolic reasoning can still be very effective for certain narrowly defined tasks, such as diagnosing a well-understood technical issue in a controlled environment. However, the unpredictable nature of real-world data, coupled with the sheer diversity of tasks, has led to a shift toward more flexible and robust frameworks, particularly reinforcement learning and neural network-based approaches.Reinforcement Learning (RL)RL is a powerful paradigm for decision-making in uncertain, dynamic environments. Unlike supervised learning, which relies on labeled examples, RL agents learn by engaging with an environment and optimizing a reward signal. Some of the most prominent RL algorithms include:Q-Learning: Agents learn a value function Q(s, a), where s state and a action. This function estimates the future cumulative reward for taking action a in state s and following a particular policy. The agent refines these Q-values through repeated exploration, gradually converging to a policy that maximizes long-term rewards.Policy Gradients: In place of learning a value function, policy gradient methods directly adjust the parameters of a policy function (). By computing the gradient of expected rewards for the policy parameters , the agent can fine-tune its probability distributions over actions to improve performance. Methods like REINFORCE, PPO (Proximal Policy Optimization), and DDPG (Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient) fall under this umbrella.Actor-Critic Methods: Combining the strengths of value-based and policy-based methods, actor-critic algorithms maintain both a policy (the actor) and a value function estimator (the critic). The critic guides the actor by providing feedback on the value of states or state-action pairs, enhancing learning stability and efficiency.RL has demonstrated remarkable capabilities in environments ranging from robotic locomotion to complex strategy games. The synergy of RL with deep neural networks (Deep RL) has unlocked new frontiers, enabling agents to handle high-dimensional observations, like raw images, and learn intricate policies that outperform human experts in games such as Go and StarCraft II.LLM-Based Reasoning (GPT-4 Chain-of-Thought)A recent development in AI reasoning leverages LLMs. Models like GPT-4 are trained on massive text corpora, acquiring statistical language patterns and, to some extent, the world itself. This approach offers unique advantages:Contextual Reasoning: LLMs can parse complex instructions or scenarios, using a chain of thought to break down problems and logically arrive at conclusions or next steps.Natural Language Interaction: Agents can communicate their reasoning processes using natural language, providing more explainability and intuitive interfaces for human oversight.Task Generalization: While RL agents often require domain-specific rewards, LLM-based reasoners can adapt to diverse tasks simply by providing new instructions or context in natural language.Yet, challenges remain. Hallucinations, where the model confidently asserts incorrect information, poses risks, and purely text-based reasoning may not always align with real-world constraints. Nevertheless, combining LLM-based reasoning with RL-style objective functions (such as reinforcement learning from human feedback or RLHF) can yield more reliable and aligned decision-making processes.The Decision-Making PipelineRegardless of the specific algorithmic approach, the decision-making workflow in an agentic system often follows a common pipeline:State Estimation: The module receives processed inputs from the Perception/Observation Layer, often aggregated or enriched by the Knowledge Representation system. It then forms an internal state representation of the current environment. In robotics, this might be a coordinate-based view of the agents surroundings, or in text-based systems; it might be the current conversation plus relevant retrieved documents or facts.Goal Interpretation: The agent identifies its objectives, whether they are explicit goals set by human operators (e.g., deliver a package, maximize conversion rates) or emergent objectives derived from a learned reward function.Policy Evaluation: The agent consults a policy or processes reasoning based on the internal state and recognized goals. This step might involve forward simulation (predicting outcomes of possible actions), searching through decision trees, or sampling from an LLM-driven chain of thought.Action Selection: The agent chooses the deemed optimal or at least satisfactory given constraints and uncertainty. Under RL paradigms, this is guided by the highest Q-value or policy output. At the same time, LLM-based agents might rely on the models next-token predictions contextualized by instructions and examples.Outcome Assessment & Learning: After the action is executed (physically or virtually), the agent observes new feedback, rewards, error signals, or human responses and updates its policy, knowledge base, or internal parameters accordingly. This closes the loop, enabling continuous improvement over time.Balancing Constraints and Ethical ImperativesA purely self-improving agent guided by one objective, like maximizing speed in a robot courier scenario, can produce unintended or dangerous behaviors without constraints. It may, for instance, violate safety guidelines or ignore traffic lights. To circumvent such problems, developers introduce additional logic or multi-objective reward functions that place safety, legal compliance, or ethical considerations on par with primary performance metrics. When these constraints are coded as unbreakable rules, the agent must always respect them, even if they reduce short-term performance.Ethical and social imperatives also come to the fore in conversational systems. A purely RL-driven chatbot might learn that generating shocking or misleading statements can capture more user attention, achieving higher engagement metrics. This is not desirable from a moral or reputational standpoint. Consequently, constraints such as do not produce hateful or harmful content or always cite credible sources when providing factual statements are built into the chatbots design. Techniques like reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) refine the language models output, nudging it to adhere to guidelines while still responding dynamically. Integrating these value-driven constraints is central to fostering public trust and ensuring that AI remains a positive force in real-world applications.Applications and Real-World ImplicationsThe Reasoning/Decision-Making Module underpins numerous real-world use cases. In industrial robotics, a learning policy might coordinate a fleet of robots collaborating to assemble complex products on a factory floor. These agents must carefully time their movements and share data about parts or production lines, orchestrating tasks in tandem. In autonomous vehicles, the module is responsible for lane keeping, adaptive cruise control, and obstacle avoidance while handling the countless variables of real-world driving. Rule-based guardrails ensure compliance with traffic laws, while learned policies adapt to local conditions such as unexpected road closures.Conversational agents leverage reasoning and decision-making to provide consistent, context-aware responses. A customer service chatbot can interpret user sentiment, recall policy details from the knowledge store, and seamlessly transition between general conversation and specialized troubleshooting. By chaining together knowledge retrieval, short-term memory context, and LLM-based logic, it can handle escalating levels of complexity with minimal developer intervention. Emerging fields such as personalized healthcare and financial advisory also explore leveraging advanced decision-making in AI. In healthcare, a decision support system might analyze patient vitals and medical records, compare them against a knowledge graph of evidence-based treatments, and propose a course of action that a clinician can approve or modify. In financial services, an AI advisor might use RL to optimize a portfolio under multiple constraints, balancing risk tolerance and return targets while factoring in compliance regulations coded as absolute constraints.ConclusionThe Reasoning/Decision-Making Module is the beating heart of any agentic system. It shapes how an AI interprets incoming data, projects possible futures, and selects the most appropriate path. Whether the agent relies on traditional symbolic logic, state-of-the-art reinforcement learning, large language models, or some synergy, this module imbues the system with its capacity for autonomy. It is the juncture where perception and knowledge converge into purposeful outputs.Agentic AI can rise above reactive computation by considering constraints, rewards, ethical guidelines, and desired outcomes. It can adapt over time, refine its strategies, and respond sensibly to predictable and novel challenges. The next article will illuminate how decisions are translated into tangible actions through the Action/Actuation Layer, where theoretical plans become physical motion or digital commands. As the agents hands and feet, that layer completes the cycle, turning well-reasoned decisions into real-world impact.Sources:Also,dont forget to follow us onTwitter and join ourTelegram Channel andLinkedIn Group. Dont Forget to join our75k+ ML SubReddit.(Promoted) Asif RazzaqWebsite| + postsBioAsif Razzaq is the CEO of Marktechpost Media Inc.. As a visionary entrepreneur and engineer, Asif is committed to harnessing the potential of Artificial Intelligence for social good. His most recent endeavor is the launch of an Artificial Intelligence Media Platform, Marktechpost, which stands out for its in-depth coverage of machine learning and deep learning news that is both technically sound and easily understandable by a wide audience. The platform boasts of over 2 million monthly views, illustrating its popularity among audiences.Asif Razzaqhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/6flvq/Meta AI Proposes EvalPlanner: A Preference Optimization Algorithm for Thinking-LLM-as-a-JudgeAsif Razzaqhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/6flvq/Yandex Develops and Open-Sources Perforator: An Open-Source Tool that can Save Businesses Billions of Dollars a Year on Server InfrastructureAsif Razzaqhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/6flvq/NVIDIA AI Releases Eagle2 Series Vision-Language Model: Achieving SOTA Results Across Various Multimodal BenchmarksAsif Razzaqhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/6flvq/Qwen AI Releases Qwen2.5-VL: A Powerful Vision-Language Model for Seamless Computer Interaction [Recommended] Join Our Telegram Channel

When the 5080 launched, I thought, "Buying an RTX 5080 for 1440p gaming is like buying a Ferrari to do the school run." Sure, it's fast and powerful, but you're spending way more than necessary for performance you'll never fully use. The RTX 5080 is a 4K powerhouse, but that power is going to be wasted unless you're rocking a 240Hz 4K monitor.Forget RTX 5080, Get A RTX 4070 Super UK Deal And Thank Me LaterI decided to buy an RTX 4070 Super (The MSI model below specifically), which is amazing for 1440p gaming in my gaming rig. It delivers buttery smooth performance at nearly half the price, efficiently handling 1440p at over 150 FPS in modern games. You save a fortune, and guess what? You won't notice the difference in real-world gameplay either. MSI GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12G VENTUS 2X OC Gaming Graphics Card579.98 at AmazonASUS GeForce RTX 4070 Super 12G DUAL EVO OCASUS ROG-STRIX RTX4070 SUPER O12GPalit GeForce RTX 4070 Super Dual 12GB GDDR6X/PCI Express 4.0549.98 at AmazonRTX 4070 Super vs RTX 5080 Specs BreakdownGPURTX 4070 SuperRTX 5080CUDA Cores7,16810,752VRAM12GB GDDR6X16GB GDDR7Memory Bus192-bit256-bitBoost Clock2.48 GHz2.7 GHzTDP220W360WMSRP5991,099+Yes, RTX 5080 is the better card on paper, but here's the catch 1440p doesn't need that much raw power. The 4070 Super is more efficient, cheaper, and still crushes high-FPS gaming at 1440p. That 150+ FPS doesn't account for DLSS 3.0 either, which means even more frames when activated.RTX 4070 Super Benchmarks 1440p PowerhouseBenchmarkFPSScoreMax FPSUnigine Heaven 4.0180.64,551399.1FurMark GL17610,587N/AUnigine Valley198.58305327.4Let's talk real-world numbers. The RTX 4070 Super dominates 1440p, comfortably pushing past 150 FPS in demanding games. This is insanely good performance, and the RTX 4070 Super does it while sipping power, meaning lower temps, less noise, and lower electricity bills. These results have been achieved by overclocking the MSI RTX 4070 Super OC 12GB model using MSI afterburner. GPU runs at 2760MHz and Memory at 10501 MHz with a temperature limit of 84C. Don't you need that many frames? You can undervolt this graphics card and get nearly the same results. Suppose you're not sure about using MSI Afterburner. In that case, there's an option for Nvidia software to assess your gaming PC and automatically overclock RTX 4070 for you. These benchmarks were done alongside a well-balanced gaming setup featuring a 13th Gen Intel Core i5-13400F processor, a 10-core, 16-thread CPU that delivers solid gaming performance without breaking the bank. Paired with 64GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR4 RAM.Why RTX 4070 Super Makes More Sense for 1440pRTX 4070 Super perfectly matches 1440p 144Hz gaming, delivering high FPS without unnecessary overkill. It also costs nearly half the price of the RTX 5080 while offering almost identical real-world performance at 1440p. It runs cooler, quieter, and more efficiently thanks to its lower power draw, which means better thermals, less noise, and a longer lifespan. Plus, you're still getting next-gen AI features like DLSS 3, Frame Generation, and AI-powered upscaling, so your games look smooth and sharp without needing to brute-force raw performance.Christian Wait is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything collectable and deals. Christian has over 7 years of experience in the Gaming and Tech industry with bylines at Mashable and Pocket-Tactics. Christian also makes hand-painted collectibles for Saber Miniatures. Christian is also the author of "Pokemon Ultimate Unofficial Gaming Guide by GamesWarrior". Find Christian on X @ChrisReggieWait.

According to Bloombergs Mark Gurman, Apple will be launching a new events and invites service as part of iCloud. This new service will differ from calendar, and will launch as early as this coming week.The report describes Confetti as a new way to invite people to parties, functions and meetings. According to Bloomberg, Apple has been aiming to revamp the calendar app for years, and this is just the beginning of those efforts.Gurman also adds that this new Confetti launch is tied to iOS 18.3, which begun rolling out to iPhone and iPad users late last month. This means that the service could be activated at any moment. Other than that, the report is light on details.Last month, we exclusively reported this new invites service on 9to5Mac after discovering it in iOS 18.3 beta code. Heres how my colleague Filipe describes the effort:After analyzing the code, we believe that the app is designed to help users organize meetings and in-person events. Although Apples Calendar app can already be used for this purpose, the new Invites app will likely have some additional features.Code suggests that the Invites app will integrate with iCloud and will even have a web version oniCloud.com. The new app also integrates with a new iOS 18 daemon called GroupKit, which manages database models for groups of people. This daemon has been present since the first release of iOS 18.0 and hasnt been used by any Apple apps so far.Essentially, the app will show you a list of the people invited to that event and who has already confirmed their attendance. Its unclear whether Invites will actually be a stand-alone app or whether Apple has plans to integrate it with other parts of the system (such as a mini iMessage app). Presumably, the app will have a more fun interface than what the Calendar app currently provides for inviting someone to an event.Personally, Im quite excited for this upcoming service. Ive long felt that there could easily be a way to simplify calendars, and Im glad that Apple is taking a step in that direction.What do you think of Apples upcoming invites/events service in iOS 18.3? Let us know in the comments.My favorite iPhone accessories on Amazon:Follow Michael:X/Twitter,Bluesky,InstagramAdd 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Image by Getty / InfoWars / FuturismGeneticsA mouse with two dads or a bi-paternal mouse,in the scientific parlance has made it to adulthood. Several mice, in fact.As detailed in a study , scientists achieved this feat of same-sex murine parentage by using CRISPR techniques to rein in rogue genes that undergo a troublesome process known as imprinting.We're still far from replicating this feat in humans, but it marks a milestone in same-sex reproduction in mammals. Until now, many similar attempts have resulted in unhealthy offspring."The unique characteristics of imprinting genes have led scientists to believe that they are a fundamental barrier to unisexual reproduction in mammals," said study coauthor Qi Zhou of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in a statement about the work. "Even when constructing bi-maternal or bi-paternal embryos artificially, they fail to develop properly, and they stall at some point during development due to these genes."The Chinese scientists aren't the first to bring up bi-paternal mice that lived to adulthood; a team from Japan made that breakthrough in 2023. But the latest approach is novel, and could provide insights into preventing developmental diseases in humans. It's not a direct road to helping human same-sex parents conceive children, but the authors believe it will carry over to monkeys, which they hope to experiment on next.The scientist's unique approach involved genes that undergo imprinting. For context, we normally inherit a copy of a gene from each parent. But sometimes, when only one of the pair is expressed while the other is silenced, you have imprinting. The resulting imbalance can often cause developmental defects, which plagued previous attempts at creating a bi-paternal mouse. Simply put, it causes too many genes to go haywire.To address this, the researchers first grew stem cells from sperm DNA. They then edited the stem cells to prevent twenty mice genes known to be heavily involved in their developmental stage from being imprinted.While it's just a portion of the total number that undergo this process in mice, according to MIT Technology Review, it made an impact. The stem cells successfully created embryos after being injected into lab grown egg cells which were then fertilized with another male's sperm.This technique is far from perfect, though. Only around 12 percent of the embryos were able to make it to birth, and some of those that did still exhibited developmental defects. Most of the adults had a short lifespan, and all the adult mice ended up sterile. (Unlike in the 2023 study, in which the adults were able to produce offspring.)So it's not quite one big happy family. But this is just a start in what could be a game-changer in not just refining unisexual reproduction, but understanding imprinting's role in many human diseases."These findings provide strong evidence that imprinting abnormalities are the main barrier to mammalian unisexual reproduction," said coauthor Guan-Zheng Luo of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou in the statement. "This approach can significantly improve the developmental outcomes of embryonic stem cells and cloned animals, paving a promising path for the advancement of regenerative medicine."More on genetics: Designer Babies Running Into Trouble Now That They're TeenagersShare This Article

We may be hurdling ourselves toward a violent techno-dystopia, but it isn't here yet.The Cleveland Plain Dealer revealed that police in Cleveland, Ohio just botched an important murder case by relying on evidence given to them by AI.Cleveland detectives were stumped while investigating the February 2024 murder of 33-year-old Cleveland native Blake Story. So they did what any good investigator would do: they sent security footage of a suspect to the Northeast Ohio Regional Fusion Center a command center for intelligence and data gathering shared by local, state, and federal agencies to plug into its AI program.The Fusion Center has been employing bold new AI products to help their staff cut down on their workload. One of those productswas Clearview, the controversial New York-based facial-recognition platform that's facing a class-action federal lawsuit following the New York Times' bombshell revelation of its existence.The Fusion Center kicked back a positive ID on a man named Qeyeon Tolbert. Local police wasted no time securing a "no-knock" warrant for Tolbert's girlfriend's home, where they allegedly gathered additional evidence to build a case leading to his arrest and subsequent murder trial.The issue comes from the chain of logic that led police to identify Tolbert. Rather than building a case on gunpowder residue, DNA matching, eyewitness accounts, or cell tower pings, police essentially used Clearview to match CCTV footage of the murder to CCTV footage of a random man they thought matched the suspect's description.A judge has since suppressed the AI evidence and all evidence predicated on the faulty warrant, though county prosecutors are appealing the ruling.Clearview will likely want to have nothing to do with the incident. A disclaimer on their website states that "Clearview makes no guarantees as to the accuracy of its search-identification software."That copy, however, is not nearly as prominent on the startup's website as blurbs bragging about "50+ Billion images in our law enforcement database the largest in the world by far," or a claimed "99+ percent accuracy for all demographics."And though Clearview's software may not be intended to prosecute American citizens yet the website is clearly billed as a tool for law enforcement and judicial entities, bragging on its front page that a "public defender [used] facial recognition to locate a key witness in a vehicular homicide exoneration case."Legalese notwithstanding, aWashington Post investigation has found that at least eight Americans have been falsely arrested based solely on the positive IDs of facial recognition AI. In every one of those cases, the person arrested was Black.And that number is increasingas overzealous police whether aware of AI's reliability issues or not take AI panopticon tech as gospel, often choosing to arrest first and ask questions later. The ACLU notes that "even when police heed warnings to take additional investigative steps, they exacerbate the unreliability of [facial recognition] results."As tech companies seek bold and innovative use cases in order to recoup astronomical startup costs, the burden of proof should be shared by the judicial system, law enforcement, and tech companies alike not buried deep in the metadata.More on AI surveillance: Schools Are Using AI Surveillance to Catch Students Vaping Inside BathroomsShare This Article

See at Peacock Watch the EPL in the US from $8 a month Peacock See at Peacock See more details See at ExpressVPN Best VPN for streaming ExpressVPN See at ExpressVPN See more details See at Now Watch the Premier League in the UK from 15 with Now Now See at Now See more details See at Fubo Watch the Premier League in Canada from CA$30 per month Fubo Canada See at Fubo See more details See at Optus Watch the Premier League in Australia from AU$7 a month Optus Sport See at Optus See more details Table of Contents Arsenal will look to increase the pressure on Pep Guardiola and his Manchester City team on Sunday as the two bitter rivals face off in the pick of this weekend's Premier League matches.There were plenty of fireworks when the teams met at Etihad Stadium back in September, which ended in a bad-tempered 2-2 draw.Both sides have seen their hopes of winning the title fade since that encounter, and with the likes of Nottingham Forest, Newcastle and Bournemouth finding form, neither side can afford to lose this key match as they work to ensure a place in next season's Champions League.Arsenal takes on Man City on Sunday, Feb. 2, at the Emirates Stadium in North London, with kickoff set for 4:30 p.m. GMTlocal time. That makes it a 11:30 a.m. ET or 8:30 a.m. PTstart in the US and Canada, and an3:30 a.m. AEDTkickoff in Australia in the early hours of Monday morning.Below, we'll outline the best live TV streaming services to use to watch the match as it happens, wherever you are in the world. A win for Pep Guardiola's team on Sunday would see Man City reduce the gap between it and Arsenal to just three points. Michael Regan/Getty ImagesHow to watch Arsenal vs. Man City in the US without cableSunday's Arsenal vs. Man City match can be streamed in the USA onPeacock. You'll need a Peacock Premium or Premium Plus account to catch the game live. CNET Peacock offers two Premium plans, and after the recent price increases, the ad-supported Premium plan costs $8 a month and the ad-free Premium Plus plan is $14 a month. See at Peacock How to watch the Premier League 2024-25 season from anywhere with a VPNIf you find yourself unable to view EPL matches locally, you may need a different way to watch the games -- that's where using a VPN can come in handy. A VPN is also the best way to stop your ISP from throttling your speeds on game day by encrypting your traffic, and it's also a great idea if you're traveling and find yourself connected to a Wi-Fi network, and you want to add an extra layer of privacy for your devices and logins.With a VPN, you're able to virtually change your location on your phone, tablet or laptop to get access to the game. Most VPNs, like our Editors' Choice, ExpressVPN, make it really easy to do this.Using a VPN to watch or stream sports is legal in any country where VPNs are legal, including the US, UK and Canada, as long as you have a legitimate subscription to the service you're streaming. You should be sure your VPN is set up correctly to prevent leaks: Even where VPNs are legal, the streaming service may terminate the account of anyone it deems to be circumventing correctly applied blackout restrictions. James Martin/CNET 2024 Latest Tests DNS leaks detected, 25% speed loss in 2024 testsNetwork 3,000 plus servers in 105 countriesJurisdiction British Virgin Islands ExpressVPN isour current best VPN pickfor people who want a reliable and safe VPN, and it works on a variety of devices. It's normally $13 a month, but if you sign up for an annual subscription for $100 you'll get three months free and save 49%. That's the equivalent of $6.67 a month.Note that ExpressVPN offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. 61% off with 2yr plan (+4 free months) See at ExpressVPN Livestream Arsenal vs. Man City in the UKThis Sunday afternoon fixture is exclusive to Sky Sports, showing on its Sky Sports Main Event, Premier League and UHD channels. If you already have Sky Sports as part of your TV package, you can stream the game via its Sky Go app, but cord-cutters will want to get set up with a Now account and a Now Sports membership to stream the game. Now TV Sky subsidiary Now offers streaming access to Sky Sports channels with a Now Sports membership. You can get a day of access for 15, or sign up to a monthly plan from 35 per month right now. See at Now Livestream Arsenal vs. Man City in CanadaIf you want to stream this EPL game live in Canada, you'll need to subscribe to Fubo Canada. The service has exclusive rights to every Premier League fixture once again this season. Fubo Fubo is the go-to destination for Canadians looking to watch the EPL this season, with exclusive streaming rights to every match. It costs CA$30 a month, though you can save some cash by paying quarterly or annually. See at Fubo Livestream Arsenal vs. Man City in AustraliaFootball fans down under can watch EPL matches live on streaming service Optus Sport, which is showing every single Premier League fixture of the 2024-25 season live in Australia. Optus With exclusive rights to stream all EPL matches live this season, as well as German Bundesliga and Spanish La Liga games, streaming service Optus Sport is a particularly big draw for Aussie soccer fans.If you're already an Optus network customer, you can bag Optus Sport for a reduced price, with discounts bringing the price down to as low as AU$7 a month. If you're not, a standalone monthly subscription to the service starts at AU$25. See at Optus Quick tips for streaming the Premier League using a VPNWith four variables at play -- your ISP, browser, video streaming provider and VPN -- your experience and success when streaming EPL matches may vary.If you don't see your desired location as a default option for ExpressVPN, try using the "search for city or country" option.If you're having trouble getting the game after you've turned on your VPN and set it to the correct viewing area, there are two things you can try for a quick fix. First, log into your streaming service subscription account and make sure the address registered for the account is an address in the correct viewing area. If not, you may need to change the physical address on file with your account. Second, some smart TVs -- like Roku -- don't have VPN apps you can install directly on the device itself. Instead, you'll have to install the VPN on your router or the mobile hotspot you're using (like your phone) so that any device on its Wi-Fi network now appears in the correct viewing location.All of the VPN providers we recommend have helpful instructions on their main site for quickly installing the VPN on your router. In some cases with smart TV services, after you install a cable network's sports app, you'll be asked to verify a numeric code or click a link sent to your email address on file for your smart TV. This is where having a VPN on your router will also help, since both devices will appear to be in the correct location.And remember, browsers can often give away a location despite using a VPN, so be sure you're using a privacy-first browser to log into your services. We normally recommendBrave.

Unitree, a Chinese robotics company competing with outfits like Boston Dynamics, Tesla, Agility Robotics and others, has unveiled a new video of its humanoid G1 and H1 robots, showing off some new moves.The smaller, more affordable G1 robot is shown running, navigating uneven terrain and walking in a more natural way. Unitree told us that because the robots were operating in environments it hadn't mapped with LIDAR, these demos were remote controlled. Unitree G1 humanoid robot shown running in new video. Unitree RoboticsUnitree's taller H1 humanoid robot also showed off some new moves at a Spring Festival Gala. The robots performed a preset routine learned from data produced by human dancers. The company says "whole body AI motion control" kept the robots in sync and allowed the robots to respond to any unplanned changes or events. Unitree's H1 humanoid robots were shown dancing at a Spring Festival Gala. Unitree RoboticsFor a full breakdown of these new videos, and to see these robots in action, check out the video at the top of this article. You can also watch our hands-on demo of the Unitree G1 down below.

PlatinumGames quietly removes all mentions of Project G.G. from website"I feel deeply insulted by this," says former Platinum producer.Image credit: PlatinumGames News by Vikki Blake Contributor Published on Feb. 2, 2025 PlatinumGames has removed all mentions of its superhero game, Project G.G., from its website.Whereas previously, 22 released and upcoming games had been listed there, all but nine have been removed, with even the codenamed project's dedicated URL now redirecting to the main page.Project G.G. Teaser Trailer - Platinum Games.Watch on YouTubeGames like Star Fox Zero, Babylon's Fall, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan, Transformers: Devastation, and The Legend of Korra have also been scrubbed from Platinum's "all works" page.Former Platinum Games mastermind Hideki Kamiya announced the project - codenamed Project G.G. - back in June 2020. It had been described as Kamiya described as the third and final entry in his now-trilogy of hero works following the Viewtiful Joe series and The Wonderful 101.However, Kamiya left the studio in 2023 and joined Clovers at the end of last year. There has been no update on the fate of Project G.G. since his departure."Saw this on ResetEra, and I have no idea why they did it, but PlatinumGames erasing its history on its website is extremely regrettable," opined former PlatinumGames producer, JP Kellams (thanks, VGC)."I wonder if the pulled the carpet tiles out of the lobby, too. As someone proud of working on those games, I feel deeply insulted by this." To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Last week's Xbox Developer Direct kicked off with the reveal of Ninja Gaiden 4, a fresh mainline entry in the legendary action game series in development by Team Ninja and PlatinumGames.It's the first new entry in the series for 13 years, and is set to launch this autumn on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, including on Xbox Game Pass.

Crazy for colors, a little flashy, and pleasantly offbeatVicente Hernndez Zaragoza is a well-known figure to many Ibiza residents and visitors. He first came to the Mediterranean island in 1971 from the village of Guardamar, in the Spanish province of Alicante, and now he is known by many simply as Mr. Ibiza. His long-running boutique Vicente Ganesha, which sells vintage clothes as well as his own fashion line, has reached cult status. More than 30,000 fans follow him on Instagram.Zaragozas popular Ibiza-themed shop is just a few steps away from his home on the famous Plaa des Parc, in the main town on the island, where tourists and locals alike sit at terraces sipping drinks or pass through on a stroll between the old town and the nearby harbor.With late-18th-century oil paintings, vases, and jugs, as well as fresh flowers all around, this corner of the apartment is a cozy nook with a wooden banquette.Zaragoza lives on the Plaa des Parc in a historic building dating from 1890 that has a view over the lively city. Two years ago, he had his 500-square-foot apartment redesigned by his friends Jaime Romano, an architect, and Roberta Jurado, an interior designertogether the couple run Romano Arquitectos on Ibiza and in Barcelona.Vicente has been a friend of ours for years. When he bought his apartment, he thought of us right away for the renovation, says Romano. Roberta and I have years of experience together. Vicente wanted a well-oiled team that would work together seamlessly, understand his personality, and meet his specific expectations.A glimpse of the compact kitchen through a set of wooden doors. Chessboard tiles add a dynamic element to the living room.The two citrus reamers in the kitchen are the iconic 1990s Juicy Salif design by Philippe Starck.One enters Zaragozas aerie on the top floor of a five-story building, preserved structurally just as it was built in the late 19th century. The apartment has a clear floor plan and large, beautiful windows, as architect Romano points out. The building is a protected landmark, with the nice detail that from either side you look out onto very iconic Ibizan landmarks: the great Vara de Rey promenade and the Plaa des Parc. Zaragozas apartment faces the latter to the southwest, with a magnificent view of the Renaissance city walls that were part of the old towns fortifications.