Adobe has updated the Acrobat AI Assistant, giving it the ability to understand contracts and to compare them for you. The company says it can help you make sense of complex terms and spot differences between agreements, such as between old and new ones, so you can understand what you're signing. With the AI Assistant enabled, the Acrobat app will be able to recognize if a document is a contract, even if it's a scanned page. It can identify and list key terms from there, summarize the document's contents and recommend questions you can ask based on what's in it.AdobeThe feature can also compare up to 10 contracts with one another and be able to check for differences and catch discrepancies. When it's done checking, and if you're satisfied that everything's in order, you can sign the document directly or request e-signatures from your colleagues or clients. Adobe listed a few potential uses for the feature and said you can use it to check apartment leases, to verify out-of-country charges for mobile plans and to compare perks or amenities of competing services. It could be even more useful if you regularly have to take a look at multiple contracts for your work or business.Of course, you'd have to trust the AI assistant to actually be able to spot important information and catch both small and significant changes between different contracts. If it works properly, then it could be one of Acrobat AI's most useful features, seeing as users (according to Adobe itself) open billions of contracts each month on the Acrobat app. The Acrobat AI Assistant isn't free, however. It's an add-on that will cost you $5 a month whether or not you're already paying for Adobe's other services and products.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/adobes-acrobat-ai-assistant-can-now-assess-contracts-for-you-140058723.html?src=rss

If you've been waiting for a good deal on an iPad with one of Apple's M-series chips, now seems like a good time to take the plunge. The M2-powered 11-inch iPad Air has dropped back down to $500. That's $100 off the regular price and just a hair above the record low of $498. Most colorways have dropped to either $539 or $559, but you'll get the full discount when you add in the clippable coupon for each. This deal is for the base model with 128GB of storage (double the base storage from the previous gen) and no cellular connectivity, though there is Wi-Fi 6E support. You'll get 8GB of RAM as well. We gave the M2 iPad Air, which debuted less than a year ago, a score of 91 in our review. It's our pick for the best iPad for most people. It hits the sweet spot between performance, features and price even more so considering this deal. It offers better future proofing compared with the entry-level iPad, as many features and apps only run on M-series chips and newer A-series ones. For basic tasks like web browsing and streaming video, performance shouldn't be an issue at all. The M2 iPad Air supports Apple Intelligence features, as well as demanding games like Death Stranding and the Resident Evil 4 remake. You should get about 10 hours of battery life on a single charge. There's no Face ID here, but a Touch ID fingerprint scanner is built into the power button. One other major positive is that Apple has shunted the front-facing camera to th longer side of the tablet, making FaceTime calls in landscape mode an easier proposition. The M2 iPad Air is compatible with the Apple Pencil Pro, but not the second-gen Pencil. One of our main complaints about the M2 iPad Air is that it has an LCD display with a 60Hz refresh rate. It's not as smooth or vibrant as the 120Hz OLED you'll find on the most recent iPad Pro. Still, it's a bright, sharp screen. However you slice it, the M2 iPad Air is a pretty great tablet. If you'd prefer a larger tablet, the 13-inch M2 iPad Air is on sale now, too. The space gray model is the cheapest at $689, which is more than $100 off, while most other colors are on sale for $700 when you combine their straight discounts with clippable coupons found on the product pages. Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-11-inch-ipad-air-m2-is-on-sale-for-100-off-153619945.html?src=rss

Researchers have discovered a dataset which could leave people at risk.

You don't have to wait for the RTX 5090 or RTX 5080 to restock if youre tempted by the laptop GPU variants. Multiple configurations using the new GPUs are available for pre-order.

PayPal reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings and revenue in its quarterly report on Tuesday.

Human resources software firm Deel said it has hit an annual revenue run rate of $800 million as it ramps up preparations to go public.

China countered President Donald Trumps across-the-board tariffs on Chinese products with tariffs on select U.S. imports Tuesday, as well as announcing an antitrust investigation into Google and other trade measures.U.S. tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico were also set to go into effect Tuesday before Trump agreed to a 30-day pause as the two countries acted to appease his concerns about border security and drug trafficking. Trump planned to talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the next few days.The Chinese response was measured, said John Gong, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. I dont think they want the trade war escalating, he said. And they see this example from Canada and Mexico and probably they are hoping for the same thing.This isnt the first round of tit-for-tat actions between the two countries. China and the U.S. had engaged in a trade war in 2018 when Trump raised tariffs on Chinese goods and China responded in kind.This time, analysts said, China is much better prepared to counter, with the government announcing a slew of measures that cut across different sectors of the economy, from energy to individual U.S. companies.Counter tariffsChina said it would implement a 15% tariff on coal and liquefied natural gas products as well as a 10% tariff on crude oil, agricultural machinery and large-engine cars imported from the U.S. The tariffs would take effect next Monday.The U.S.s unilateral tariff increase seriously violates the rules of the World Trade Organization, the State Council Tariff Commission said in a statement. It is not only unhelpful in solving its own problems, but also damages normal economic and trade cooperation between China and the U.S.The impact on U.S. exports may be limited. Though the U.S. is the biggest exporter of liquid natural gas globally, it does not export much to China. In 2023, the U.S. exported 173,247 million cubic feet of LNG to China, representing about 2.3% of total natural gas exports, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.China imported only about 700,000 cars overall last year, and the leading importers are from Europe and Japan, said Bill Russo, the founder of the Automobility Limited consultancy in Shanghai.Further export controls on critical mineralsChina announced export controls on several elements critical to the production of modern high-tech products.They include tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, molybdenum and indium, many of which are designated as critical minerals by the U.S. Geological Survey, meaning they are essential to U.S. economic or national security that have supply chains vulnerable to disruption.The export controls are in addition to ones China placed in December on key elements such as gallium.They have a much more developed export control regime, Philip Luck, an economist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and former State Department official, said at a panel discussion on Monday.We depend on them for a lot of critical minerals: gallium, germanium, graphite, a host of others, he said. So they could put some significant harm on our economy.The response from China appears calculated and measured, said Stephen Dover, chief market strategist and head of the Franklin Templeton Institute, a financial research firm. However, he said, the world is bracing for further impact.A risk is that this is the beginning of a tit-for-tat trade war, which could result in lower GDP growth everywhere, higher U.S. inflation, a stronger dollar and upside pressure on U.S. interest rates, Dover said.US companies also impactedIn addition, Chinas State Administration for Market Regulation said Tuesday it is investigating Google on suspicion of violating antitrust laws. The announcement did not mention the tariffs but came just minutes after Trumps 10% tariffs on China were to take effect.It is unclear how the probe will affect Googles operations. The company has long faced complaints from Chinese smartphone makers over its business practices surrounding the Android operating system, Gong said.Otherwise, Google has a limited presence in China, and its search engine is blocked in the country like most other Western platforms. Google exited the Chinese market in 2010 after refusing to comply with censorship requests from the Chinese government and following a series of cyberattacks on the company.Google did not immediately comment.The Commerce Ministry also placed two American companies on an unreliable entities list: PVH Group, which owns Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, and Illumina, which is a biotechnology company with offices in China. The listing could bar them from engaging in China-related import or export activities and from making new investments in the country.Beijing began investigating PVH Group in September last year over improper Xinjiang-related behavior after the company allegedly boycotted the use of Xinjiang cotton.Putting these U.S. companies on the unreliable entities list is alarming because it shows that the Chinese government is using the list to pressure U.S. companies to take a side, said George Chen, managing director for The Asia Group, a Washington D.C.-headquartered business policy consultancy.Its almost like telling American companies, what your government is doing is bad, you need to tell the government that if you add more tariffs or hurt U.S.-China relations at the end of the day itll backfire on American companies, Chen said.Wu reported from Bangkok. AP writers Zen Soo in Hong Kong and Christopher Bodeen in Taipei, Taiwan, contributed to this report.Ken Moritsugu and Huizhong Wu, Associated Press

Shares in music streamer Spotify (NYSE: SPOT) are up nearly 9% in premarket trading as of the time of this writing after the company reported fourth-quarter earnings results for its fiscal 2024. It was a quarter that ended the music streamers first full year of profitability. And saw many important metrics increase by double-digit percentages. Heres what you need to know about Spotifys Q4 2024 earnings.SPOT Q4 2024 earnings by the numbersSpotify posted several investor-pleasing metrics today. Here are the main highlights of Spotifys Q4 2024:Monthly Active Users (MAUs): 675 million (up 12% Y/Y)Premium subscribers: 263 million (up 11% Y/Y)Total Revenue: 4.2 billion (up 16% Y/Y)Spotify says its 35 million additional MAUs was the largest Q4 MAU addition in the companys history and ended up exceeding the companys internal forecasts by 10 million. Additionally, its Premium Subscriber additions of 11 million were 3 million more than the company forecasted.But perhaps the best news from Spotifys results was that it reported its first full year of operating income profitability. Operating income in Q4 reached 477 million, and for the 2024 fiscal year totaled 1.4 billion.Spotify stock jumpsAfter announcing its Q4 2024 results, Spotify shares jumped in premarket trading on the New York Stock Exchange. As of the time of this writing, SPOT shares are currently up almost 9% to above $596 per share. Year-to-date, SPOT shares were already up over 21% as of yesterdays closing share price of $549.Spotifys stock is trading significantly higher than where it was just a few years ago. In October 2023, the companys share price was trading below $75 per share. But since then, it has steadily risen and, since mid-2024, has experienced a resurgence.Much of that resurgence can be attributed to the efficiency efforts the company has adopted in recent years, notes Yahoo Finance. Those efforts have included reducing costs through layoffs and shifts away from its beleaguered podcasts strategy.Looking ahead to 2025Spotify is the largest music streamer in the world in terms of monthly active users. Its next closest competitor is Apple Music. But if Apples recent efforts are any indication, the iPhone maker could be gunning hard to overtake Spotify in 2025.Yesterday, Apple announced that it is offering new Apple Music subscribers six months of the music streaming service for just $2.99. That equates to less than 50 cents a month and shows the financial hit Apple is willing to take if it means gaining some of Spotifys hundreds of millions of current subscribers, who currently pay $11.99 a month for individual plans.Spotify did not address Apples promotion in its Q4 results today, but the companys CEO, Daniel Ek, said he was very excited about 2025 and [feels] really good about where we are as both a product and as a business.We will continue to place bets that will drive long term impact, increasing our speed while maintaining the levels of efficiency we achieved last year, Ek noted. Its this combination that will enable us to build the best and most valuable user experience, grow sustainably and deliver creativity to the world.As for the first part of Spotifys 2025, the company has issued a Q1 forecast in which it sees itself adding 3 million MAUs for the current quarter as well as another 2 million net new premium subscribers.

A 1960s bungalow on a GDR vacation estate near Berlin has been turned into a self-designed holiday home with a colour palette referencing California modernism.Located in Trechwitz, southwest of Berlin, the 30-square-metre house has a monopitch roof and sloping facade walls. Built from double-walled brick masonry, the 1964 bungalow sits on a 400-square-metre plot.Its owners, Jan Winkelmann and Julia Carloff-Winkelmann, who work in tech and in the art world, decided to completely renovate the building to use it as a summer house for their family.The bungalow was built in 1964 and has a monopitched roofThe duo did the design and some of the renovations themselves."To understand the original architecture and unlock the building's full potential, we decided to completely gut the bungalow," Jan Winkelmann told Dezeen."Starting with the floor plan redesign, we first relocated the cellar access previously a kitchen hatch to the exterior. Next, we sealed the old kitchen window and installed a new one for the bathroom."A horizontal window brings more light into the houseThey also wanted to open the house up a little more to its surroundings, a former German Democratic Republic (GDR) also known as East Germany vacation estate by Lake Netzen, where it sits among 44 other holiday homes."Our most impactful change was adding a horizontal window in the main room's back wall, bringing more natural light inside while creating a stronger connection to the outdoors," Jan Winkelmann said.California modernism inspired the colour paletteAs the building was intended to be used as a summer house where life "would primarily unfold outside on the terrace and in the garden," the couple focused on functionality."This deliberate reduction to essentials became the foundation of our entire design process," Jan Winkelmann said."The minimalist furnishings reflect the 1960s' characteristic functionalism while bringing it into the present not through strict period recreation, but through carefully selected, subtle references with chosen 'historical' decorative elements."Blues and yellows dominate the interiorThe 1960s also influenced the colours chosen for the bungalow's interior, which is covered in joyful pastel hues."In our research, we came across the characteristic colour palette of 1960s California modernism, which represented a perfect link to the period in which the bungalow was built," Jan Winkelmann said.Read: Nua Arquitectures revamps old Spanish home with pastel-coloured steelwork"After careful consideration and various color studies, we decided on a harmonious interplay of the three primary colors: we chose blue and yellow in soft, pastel shades that create a calming atmosphere," he added.The bathroom is completely clad in bright red tiles, chosen as a "deliberate contrast" to the pastels in the rest of the house.The bathroom was clad in red tilesTo Jan Winkelmann, the project was a chance to draw on a style of architecture that had always fascinated him."Ever since I first visited Berlin in the 1980s, I was fascinated by Karl-Marx-Allee's wedding-cake architecture," he said.Terrazzo was used for the floor"The second construction phase between Strausberger Platz and Alexanderplatz particularly captivated me with its pavilions, cinema, and Caf Moskau," he added."Built between 1959 and 1965, this section embraced the principles of modern 1960s GDR architecture. I'm also drawn to the airy lightness of Ulrich Mther's innovative concrete shell structures. I see echoes of both styles in our bungalow."Other projects on Dezeen that feature renovated East German structures include a radio centre that was turned into music studios and a derelict building that was transformed into offices.The photography is by Anne Deppe.The post Former East German bungalow transformed into colourful holiday home appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen is now in print! Those at Stockholm Design Week can pick up Dezeen Dispatch at various locations across the city. Everyone else can read a digital version of the newspaper here.Written by the Dezeen editorial team, the 40-page newspaper-style publication contains features and interviews along with our highlights of this year's Stockholm Design Week, which is taking place now in the Swedish capital.Click the image to read Dezeen DispatchThe publication, the first of its kind for Dezeen, will be available for free at venues throughout the design week (3-9 February).Along with launching a newspaper, Dezeen is also hosting the Design Disruptors talk series. This will include a talk with this year's guest of honour, British designer Faye Toogood, who is interviewed in the publication.Dezeen is also partnering with the newly-opened Stockholm Stadshotell for an Aprs Fair drinks party at the hotel bar. Find out more details about Dezeen events taking place at Stockholm Design Week here.Keep up to date with everything happening during the design week by reading Dezeen Live, which is updated throughout the day with exclusive previews of products, installations and events.Stockholm Design Week 2025takes place from 3-9 February in locations across the Swedish capital. SeeDezeen Events Guidefor more architecture and design events around the world.The post Read Dezeen Dispatch online now! appeared first on Dezeen.