Peter Kafka, Chief Correspondent covering media and technology 2025-03-13T18:22:27Z Read in app Apple CEO Tim Cook said last spring that his company had all kinds of big AI plans. Many of them have yet to materialize. Kara Durrette/Getty Images This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? Apple was late to AI. But last spring it said it was catching up and promised all kinds of AI features.Many of those have yet to materialize, and close Apple watchers are wondering if Apple will ever deliver them.Maybe Apple eventually shrugs this off. But when people like Apple blogger John Gruber are publicly shaming the company, you know something's up.Do you remember when Apple told the world it was going to bring artificial intelligence to its phones, which would allow them to do all kinds of amazing things?That was last June. And, it turns out, a bunch of the stuff Apple promised was coming has yet to show up, and now may not show up for some time if ever.If you're a normal person, you probably don't care about this. But for close Apple watchers and Apple fans, this has become an increasingly big problem: It is making them wonder if Apple made a distinctly un-Apple-like mistake last year, by showing off stuff it doesn't know how to deliver.And that has them worrying about the state of Apple itself.That crisis of faith materialized most prominently on Wednesday, via a blistering post from John Gruber, the influential Apple blogger. The title gets right at it: "Something is Rotten in the State of Cupertino."Gruber's argument boiled down: Apple hasn't shipped the most consequential features it showed off in June 2024 like the ability for the phone to sift through your emails and texts, and to tell you when your mom is arriving at the airport. More worrisome is Gruber's belief that Apple doesn't actually know how to deliver that kind of feature, and that what it showed off last spring was mere "vaporware" perhaps the most damning thing you can say about an Apple product.Even more worrisome: It wasn't just that Apple showed this stuff off at a developer conference it has been telling normal people that these features are coming soon, via an ad campaign they have now shelved.Add it all up, Gruber says, and it points to a deep malaise at the company one he says is ultimately a problem for CEO Tim Cook. If Cook can't figure it out immediately, Gruber argues, "then, I fear, that's all she wrote. The ride is over.""When mediocrity, excuses, and bullst take root, they take over," he continued. "A culture of excellence, accountability, and integrity cannot abide the acceptance of any of those things, and will quickly collapse upon itself with the acceptance of all three."Gruber isn't the only one worried about the state of Apple's AI efforts. Earlier this week analyst Ben Thompson noted the delays and concluded, "It appears Apple tried to do too much all at once."These critiques have been building for some time: Last November, Marques Brownlee, the hyper-popular tech reviewer, assessed the AI features that Apple had rolled out by then and was unimpressed. "Apple's made this promise that this huge thing is coming," he said. "I think that promise is starting to fade."I've asked Apple for comment.Does any of this matter in the real world? Maybe. Apple's stock is down 10% this week double the decline that the broader Nasdaq has seen. Of course, there are other reasons for investors to be concerned about Apple namely, the specter of a trade war that could dramatically increase costs for Apple's supply chain, which is highly dependent on China.That said: A year ago, Google was in the midst of what seemed like an existential crisis as it stumbled through its own AI rollout you may recall embarrassing "woke" results from its Gemini chatbot or equally embarrassing answers about putting glue on your pizza. But Google kept at it, and for better or worse, Google now gives you AI-generated answers much of the time, whether you want them or not.It's also possible that Apple can simply sidestep this problem entirely by leaving the AI to companies that spent a gazillion dollars chasing AI, and focusing on what Apple does really well: making high-end hardware at scale.Analysts are excited about new Apple devices like a newly released desktop PC that's supposed to work really well with the computing demands state-of-the-art AI requires."Apple doesn't need to have its own industry-leading AI st. Not right now at least. That'd be great if they did, but it's fine if they don't," Gruber tells me via email."What Apple has are the best platforms to use AI from anyone. Best phone to use ChatGPT is iPhone. Best phone to use Claude or Perplexity is iPhone. ChatGPT has a fantastic native Mac app. Even Google makes a really good Gemini app for iPhone Apple should be hammering that."What's a bit strange is that "Apple makes good hardware for other people's AI" was, in fact, a major component of Apple's AI pitch last year, and people like Thompson thought that was quite smart."Having an interface for the folks that want to spend billions of dollars to do these huge large language models, to plug in and sort of take it or leave it it's Apple leveraging their position of being the trusted device in people's lives, and getting everyone to dance to their tune," he told me last spring.Could Apple just focus on that version of AI, instead of trying to play catchup to everyone else? It would be very unlike Apple to pull an about-face and announce that a very big thing they promised was never going to happen. It's also very unlike Apple to get this kind of grief from some of its biggest fans.

2025-03-13T18:13:04Z Read in app Protesters have organized against Elon Musk's initiative to gut agencies in the federal government by firing their employees. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? A judge ordered the Trump administration to reinstate fired federal probationary employees.The judge said the explanation for firing them for performance issues was a "sham" and a "lie."The ruling affects employees in the departments of Defense, Treasury, Veterans Affairs, and others.A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to reinstate the jobs of probationary federal employees across multiple agencies, blasting the procedure behind their mass firings as a "sham."Ruling from the bench in a San Francisco courthouse, US District Judge William Alsup said the Office of Personnel Management the federal government's human resources department had no basis for claiming the employees were fired for "performance" issues.Alsup, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, said the explanation was a "gimmick" to circumvent legal requirements for laying off federal employees."It is sad, a sad day when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that's a lie," Alsup said, according to Politico.The firings were part of President Donald Trump's initiative to shrink the federal workforce, led by the White House's DOGE office.Alsup previously ruled the OPM "does not have any authority whatsoever, under any statute in the history of the universe" to tell another agency to fire its employees.His new ruling orders the departments of Defense, Treasury, Energy, Interior, Agriculture, and Veterans Affairs to offer fired probationary employees their jobs back.An IRS employee who was terminated in February, and who expects to be reinstated following Alsup's order, told BI that "it's pretty awesome.""It's relieving to an extent," the employee said. "I have been job-hunting and had an interview yesterday, but obviously you never know when you'll get a job offer."Everett Kelley, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, the union representing the government employees, said the order would save tens of thousands of jobs."We are grateful for these employees and the critical work they do, and AFGE will keep fighting until all federal employees who were unjustly and illegally fired are given their jobs back," Kelley said.Representatives for the Trump administration didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, praised Alsup's ruling and urged the Trump administration to promptly restore the jobs of fired government employees."The Trump-Musk Administration must immediately respect the court's decision and reinstate these dedicated civil servants including nuclear researchers, park rangers, VA health care workers, and more so they can get back to work on behalf of the American people," Connolly said in a statement.

Save big on EA FC, Call of Duty, Forza Horizon and plenty more with the latest Steam Spring Sale discounts you'll find our pick of the deals here for PC and Steam DeckTech17:18, 13 Mar 2025The Steam sale is backThe Steam Spring Sale is here to kick off the biggest discounts of 2025 so far, after Valve kindly let our wallets replenish somewhat after the Autumn Sale and the Winter Sale.If you're new to the Steam Sale, you've picked a great time to jump in. Valve's storefront is generally full of deals anyway, but its quarterly events are legendary for deep discounts across just about any genre, publisher, and price point.Article continues belowWith highlights this time around including big savings on Elden Ring, Dragon Age: The Veilguard and Cyberpunk 2077, there's a ton of bang for your buck.Here are our picks for the best Steam Spring Sale 2025 deals you can pick up right now.We've rounded up our picks of the deals here, but as we find more we'll add them, so be sure to come back.Dragon Age: The Veilguard (50% off) - now 24.99GTA 5 Enhanced Edition (50% off) - now 14.99Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (20% off) - now 47.99Starfield (40% off) - now 35.99EA FC 25 (70% off) - now 17.99Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2 (35% off) - now 35.74GTA 5's Enhanced Edition only launched this month(Image: Rockstar Games)Dragon's Dogma II (43%) - now 30.76Street Fighter 6 (50% off) - now 24.99Call of Duty Black Ops 6 (30% off) - now 48.99Forza Horizon 5 (50% off) - now 24.99Shadows of Doubt (40% off) - now 11.99Frostpunk 2 (30% off) - now 26.59Helldivers 2 (20% off) - now 27.99Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (75% off) - now 14.99Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition (48% off) - now 35.63Diablo 4 (45% off) - now 23.09Baldur's Gate 3 (20% off) - now 39.99Indiana Jones gets its first Steam discount(Image: MachineGames)The Crew: Motorfest (70% off) - now 17.99Forza Motorsport (50% off) - now 29.99Robocop Rogue City (80% off) - now 8.99Elden Ring (40% off) - now 29.99Animal Well (20% off) - now 16.79Dredge (50% off) - now 10.99Balatro (15% off) - now 10.87Hades 2 (Early Access) (10% off) - now 22.49Manor Lords (30% off) - now 24.49Elden Ring is one of the greatest games of all time(Image: Steam)Crusader Kings 3 (70% off) - now 12.59The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition (80% off) - now 6.99Hitman: World of Assassination Sapienza (90% off) - now 0.85Dishonored 2 (80% off) - now 4.99Vampire Survivors (25% off) - now 2.99XCOM 2 (95% off) - now 1.74Resident Evil 4 Remake (50% off) - 16.49Resident Evil Remake (75% off) - now 3.99For more on PC gaming, be sure to check out how Monster Hunter Wilds has helped Steam to a new concurrent player record, as well as what it's like moving from console to PC.Article continues belowFor the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.

Developer FuturLab is self publishing this one (FuturLab)A newly announced indie sequel is only officially slated for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox, but its claimed there are plans for a Switch 2 version as well.While the Nintendo Switch 2 is no longer a closely guarded secret, Nintendo and other studios are still keeping mum about which of their games will release for the platform, with a new Mario Kart being the only one explicitly confirmed.There are plenty of rumours and theories of what could be planned for Switch 2, including ports of Red Dead Redemption 2 and Microsofts Halo collection as well as Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (which is so far only slated for the original Switch).Ahead of the big April showcase, which will likely unveil some Switch 2 games, one new title is apparently scheduled to release on Nintendos upcoming console and its a sequel to indie hit PowerWash Simulator.Simply titled PowerWash Simulator 2 and set to release in late 2025, the announcement trailer from UK developer FuturLab only lists the game for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.Although theres no mention of the game coming to Switch 2, Eurogamer asserts that this will be the case and that further details will be shared at a later date.In a statement provided to Metro, FuturLab has downplayed the existence of a Switch 2 version, saying, Whilst we would like to release on Switch 2, there are no current firm plans. We have no timeframe or news there.Even if a Switch 2 version isnt currently in the works, its not unreasonable to assume it could happen eventually. After all, the original PowerWash Simulator launched for Xbox consoles and PC in 2022, but was later ported to the first Switch, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5, followed by a VR version for Meta Quest headsets.As for what FuturLab could confirm, PowerWash Simulator 2 very much looks to be more of the same, though it will feature a new campaign and, for the first time, split-screen co-op so friends can play through the game locally and not just online.More TrendingPowerWash Simulator 2 feels like a natural evolution from its predecessor, says design director Dan Chequer. The original games design was all about eliminating anything that detracted from the pure satisfaction of taking something dirty and making it clean.PowerWash Simulator 2 is all about adding in even more avenues for players to achieve that same sense of satisfaction, with new tools, features and quality of life improvements.Chequer adds that its thanks to the first games success, with 17 million players worldwide, that FuturLab can self-publish the sequel. For context, the first game was published by Square Enix, specifically the companys indie division Square Enix Collective.It also proved popular enough to receive multiple crossover DLC expansions, including but not limited to SpongeBob SquarePants, Back To The Future, and most recently Wallace & Gromit. The first PowerWash Simulators Wallace & Gromit DLC launched last week (Square Enix)Emailgamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below,follow us on Twitter, andsign-up to our newsletter.To submit Inbox letters and Readers Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use ourSubmit Stuff page here.For more stories like this,check our Gaming page.GameCentralSign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy

Earlier this year, Mark Zuckerberg said that, effectively, Meta was getting out of the caring about the truth business and ditching third-party fact-checkers. Now its handing over the keys to its users. Meta announced that it will start to roll out a Community Notes feature, similar to the one on X, across its major social platforms. Facebook, Instagram, and Threads will start to see community-written and rated fact checks appear on contenteventually. The test run for the feature will begin on March 18 and will focus on the note writing and ranking to work out the kinks before anything gets published. Meta claims that around 200,000 people have already signed up to a waitlist to join the pool of contributors for Community Notes, and itll start letting them in slowly through a random selection process as the feature gets introduced. The first languages approved for notes include English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, French, and Portuguese. According to the company, itll initially use the same open-source algorithm that is already used by X, with ratings taking into consideration the rating history of each user to help determine which notes will appear on the platform. Eligible users must have a Meta account that is at least six months old, in good standing, and has a verified phone number attached to the account with two-factor authentication activated. Meta says that for a note to actually make it to the platform, itll have to receive approval from users with a range of viewpoints and, no matter how many contributors agree on a note, itll only get published if people who normally disagree say it is helpful. All notes will be capped at 500 characters and will be required to include a link that supports the content in the note.Heres the thing with community notes: It can actually work. A study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign found that users on X were more willing to retract false posts in response to notes, and a study in PNAS Nexus last year found that community notes were perceived by users as significantly more trustworthy than misinformation flags or notes from third-party fact-checkers. The problem with the community notes system is that it often turns into a platform for meta-arguments, brigading, and gamification that can keep actual useful information from ever seeing the light of day. A study by Spanish fact-checking site Maldita found that just 8.3% of proposed notes on X actually get published under a post. Thats in part whyalong with a premium model that incentivizes clickbaitthere is more disinformation and hateful trash on X than there used to be, despite any shame that might be induced by getting Noted.Maybe Meta will be able to thread the needle and achieve a level of trustworthiness while also successfully scaling community notes to apply to the massive amount of content that gets posted across the companys platforms every day. Or maybe its just a way to turn users into free labor while cutting costs. Who can say for sure? Maybe if we all vote on it, well get to the truth.

Samsung is letting customers turn their homes into mini Buffalo Wild Wings, as long as theyre willing to spend ten grand for the privilege. With the baseball season right around the corner, I cant think of a better weekend project than mounting eight TVs onto your living room wall. Samsungs Buzzer Beater promotion bundles include eight TVs, with screen sizes ranging from 55 to 98 inches. Samsung is promoting the bundle for extreme sports fanatics who cant miss a game during big sporting events like March Madness, giving you a special place to watch all the games simultaneously. If you can handle the sensory overload, you can use the TVs Multi View feature, which lets you split-screen different displays with content from multiple sources, such as your phone and gaming console. The bundle includes: 1 x 98-inch Crystal UHD 4K TV 1 x 65-inch Neo QLED 8K TV 3 x 65-inch Neo QLED 4K TVs 3 x 55-inch QLED 4K TVsThe bundle costs $10,000 plus tax; however,in itspress release, Samsung points out that youre getting the TVs at a nearly 30% discount a piece, saving you around $6,000. The Samsung store page doesnt mention if the bundle includes wall mounts, since those could cost up to $200 each. If youre buying this many TVs in bulk, its probably not a big deal breaker. The Samsung Neo line of QLED TVs are some of our favorite TVs of last year, so at the very least, you know youre getting something decent in the bundle.Of course, there are the logistics of installing a game wall, which will require professional help, especially if you have any notions about turning this collage of screens into a massive jumbotron. However, this isnt too bad of a deal if you were looking to simply put a new premium TV in every room of the house. In the press release, Lydia Cho, Samsungs head of product, said that the bundle was inspired by college basketball fans DIY multi-screen setups and wanted to find a way to make game-watching bigger and better.The Buzzer Beater Bundle is only available through March 22, giving you a little more than a week to convince your significant other that paying $10,000 for eight new TVs is a worthwhile investment.

Arboroharamiya fuscus was a rodent-like early mammal with prehensile claws and wide furry membrane for sailing between branches. Chuang Zhao and Ruoshuang LiShareIf you were to travel more than 120 million years back in time to the Early Cretaceous or Jurassic Period, you might see dinosaurs with striped tails and ruddy crests, primitive birds with iridescent feathers, and forests dominated by giant tree-like ferns. What youd be less likely to notice are your closest relatives. Early mammals were small, strictly nocturnal, and altogether less showyverging on downright drab, as supported by a study published March 13 in the journal Science.The new research is the first to look back at early mammals in full color. Using advanced fossil imaging methods and a thorough examination of the pigment-producing cells present in living mammals, the team have uncovered what the fur of our long-lost kin probably looked like. Across six different specimens representing five distinct near-mammalian (mammaliaform) or mammalian groups, the researchers found striking uniformity. All of the early mammal fossils examined indicated the extinct animals had unpatterned, dark-brown coats. Get the Popular Science newsletter Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. By signing up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.Though perhaps not the most immediately exciting news, the finding is notable for illustrating what science has only previously been able to guess at. These new findings have implications for our understanding of mammalian evolution and hints at a future where we can reconstruct every era of the distant past in technicolor.When I was growing up, all of the books on fossils said that we would never know the color of extinct species, Steve Brusatte, a paleontologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Edinburgh who was uninvolved in the research, tells Popular Science. So Im always flabbergasted with studies like these that seem to do the impossible. This is fantastic work, he adds.The first mammal-like animals emerged alongside dinosaurs in the Mesozoic Era, aptly known as the Age of Reptiles. Based on fossilized bone and skeletal impressions, paleontologists have long theorized that these early pre-mammals (and the later true mammals) were fairly small. Most were no larger than rodents, and they were predominantly active at night to avoid predation. For decades, measures of eye sockets have been some of the only concrete evidence of that nocturnal lifestyle. Now, this glimpse at some of the first mammals true colors adds proof.Though we mammals may not be quite as colorful as our avian counterparts, modern species still display hues from purple to orange, along with varied patterns. Fur color isnt just aesthetic. Its a multi-functional adaptation that can serve purposes as varied as thermoregulation, camouflage, mate attraction, communication, and defense. Understanding how early mammals looked helps us understand how they lived and when all the present diversity evolved, says Matthew Shawkey, co-senior study author and an evolutionary biologist at the University of Ghent in Belgium.Artistic reconstruction of pelage coloration of five Jurassic mammaliaforms. (Top to bottom) A. fuscus (CUGB-P1901), V. diplomylos (SDUST-V0010), M. mammaliaformis (PMOL-AM00007), and docodontans SDUST-V0006 and SDUST-V0007. The green eyes of A. fuscus are an artistic license of the tapetum lucidum, an intraocular reflecting structure that enhances visual sensitivity, indicating nocturnality. Eutherian SDUST-V0008 from the Lower Cretaceous is not included in this artistic reconstruction. CREDIT: Chuang Zhao and Ruoshuang Li. The findings confirm what we [thought] about early mammalsthat they were living in the shadows of dinosaurs. Not only was their size and diversity constrained by the presence of dinosaurs, but also their coloration, Shawkey tells Popular Science. Theyre basically small, dinosaur food.To reach that conclusion, Shawkey and his colleagues built a database of living mammals. They used spectrophotometry to quantify the color of 116 modern species, and an electron microscope to closely examine the melanosomes (melanin-production and storage sacs inside melanocyte cells) of each of those animals. The team found correlations between hair color and melanosome shape and size, and used those trends to build a predictive model.Then the scientists took the same extreme, close-up view of six very well-preserved ~165 to 120-million-year-old fossils unearthed from northeastern China. The fossils were selected because theyre detailed enough to include intricate impressions of fur and individual hairs, and also represent a wide swathe of early mammals and mammaliaforms. The fossils included two flying squirrel-esque gliders, a mole-like burrower, a tree-climber, and two different terrestrial creatures. One of the extinct taxa,Arboroharamiya fuscus, is described and named for the first time in this new study.They found that the fossilized melanosomes were very similar to each other: oval shaped and mid-sized, generally lacking in the extremes present in some living mammals. Overall, the extinct species showed far less diversity than the modern ones. Using their mammalian model, the scientists predict that these melanosome measurements would have corresponded to a mousy grey-brown shade. There was some small variation between and within the specimensits biology after all, says Shawkeybut not enough to call them different colors. Likely, their universal dull, dark coloring helped these early mammals to better camouflage at night and stay warm. We came from such humble beginnings, he says.Luke Weaver, a paleontologist studying mammal evolution at the University of Michigan who wasnt part of this study, is excited about the new research. This gives a glimpse of mammal ecology that is otherwise hidden from view, he says.However, Weaver notes the study comes with limitations. The sample size of six fossils is small, encapsulating only a particular time period, region, and subset of all early mammals, he says though adds thats not abnormal for paleontology. He also cautions that this dataset doesnt necessarily allow for broad inferences about mammals later on in the Cretaceous, as the fossils are mostly representative of the earlier part of the Period.The study authors suggest early mammals were stuck in a narrow ecological and evolutionary lane until the extinction of the dinosaurs. But Weaver notes that recent studies have found evidence for earlier diversification events, as much as 30 million years before the dinosaurs died out. Some early mammals displayed advanced social behaviors, as documented in his own research, and some were even dino predatorsnot just prey.Theres often the tendency to think of mesozoic mammals as these kind of meager critters that were just running around hiding, says Weaver. Though that may be true for many, particularly the earliest groups, I would be hesitant to draw that conclusion about all early mammals, he adds. I think theres a lot of interesting things that are happening, especially in the late Cretaceous.Additional research, examining a broader range of specimens, would be needed to assess how far-reaching the trend of brown-ish, boring mammals was, and when exactly mammals began to gain stripes, spots, patches, and brighter colors. A graduate student in Shawkeys lab has already started a project to reveal just that, in an attempt to build a detailed timeline of fur evolution.In addition to illuminating our own long evolutionary journey, Weaver and others hope this and similar work underscore the value of museums and preserving fossil remains. When these fossils were initially collected, we didnt have the technology to interrogate these sorts of questions, he says. You never know what sort of new insights you can get from old fossils.

NewsLifeDark coats may have helped the earliest mammals hide from hungry dinosaursThe spots and stripes familiar to us today didn't arise until later in mammalian evolution Small mammals during the Mesozoic Era (some illustrated) may have had uniformly dark coloring, allowing them to blend into nocturnal environments. Chuang Zhao, Ruoshuang LiBy Jake Buehler3 minutes agoZebra stripes? Leopard print? Neither were in vogue among the earliest mammals during the Age of Dinosaurs.Early mammals and their close relatives probably sported dark, drab coats from snout to tail, researchers report in the March 14 Science. The monochrome ensembles may have helped ancient mammals blend into their nighttime surroundings and evade predators.Many dinosaurs especially birds showcase a vibrant array of colorful feathers. But the diversity of fur color among modern mammals is underappreciated, says Matthew Shawkey, an evolutionary biologist at Ghent University in Belgium. Theres obviously lots of patterns, stripes, spots, blotches, all those types of things, he says. But also fairly diverse colors: grays, yellows, oranges.

Nature, Published online: 13 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00705-zA well-timed atmospheric river dropped enough snow on Greenland for its ice sheet to lose 8% less mass than expected.

Nature, Published online: 12 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08677-wHepatic stellate cells regulate hepatocyte functions via R-spondin 3.