This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. We did the math on AI’s energy footprint. Here’s the story you haven’t heard. It’s well documented that AI is a power-hungry technology. But there has been far less reporting on the extent of that hunger, how much its appetite is set to grow in the coming years, where that power will come from, and who will pay for it.  For the past six months, MIT Technology Review’s team of reporters and editors have worked to answer those questions. The result is an unprecedented look at the state of AI’s energy and resource usage, where it is now, where it is headed in the years to come, and why we have to get it right.  At the centerpiece of this package is an entirely novel line of reporting into the demands of inference—the way human beings interact with AI when we make text queries or ask AI to come up with new images or create videos. Experts say inference is set to eclipse the already massive amount of energy required to train new AI models. Here’s everything we found out. Here’s what you can expect from the rest of the package, including: + We were so startled by what we learned reporting this story that we also put together a brief on everything you need to know about estimating AI’s energy and emissions burden.  + We went out into the world to see the effects of this energy hunger—from the deserts of Nevada, where data centers in an industrial park the size of Detroit demand ever more water to keep their processors cool and running.  + In Louisiana, where Meta plans its largest-ever data center, we expose the dirty secret that will fuel its AI ambitions—along with those of many others.  + Why the clean energy promise of powering AI data centers with nuclear energy will long remain elusive.  + But it’s not all doom and gloom. Check out the reasons to be optimistic, and examine why future AI systems could be far less energy intensive than today’s. AI can do a better job of persuading people than we do The news: Millions of people argue with each other online every day, but remarkably few of them change someone’s mind. New research suggests that large language models (LLMs) might do a better job, especially when they’re given the ability to adapt their arguments using personal information about individuals. The finding suggests that AI could become a powerful tool for persuading people, for better or worse. The big picture: The findings are the latest in a growing body of research demonstrating LLMs’ powers of persuasion. The authors warn they show how AI tools can craft sophisticated, persuasive arguments if they have even minimal information about the humans they’re interacting with. Read the full story. —Rhiannon Williams How AI is introducing errors into courtrooms It’s been quite a couple weeks for stories about AI in the courtroom. You might have heard about the deceased victim of a road rage incident whose family created an AI avatar of him to show as an impact statement (possibly the first time this has been done in the US).But there’s a bigger, far more consequential controversy brewing, legal experts say. AI hallucinations are cropping up more and more in legal filings. And it’s starting to infuriate judges. Just consider these three cases, each of which gives a glimpse into what we can expect to see more of as lawyers embrace AI. Read the full story. —James O’Donnell This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 Donald Trump has signed the Take It Down Act into US lawIt criminalizes the distribution of non-consensual intimate images, including deepfakes. (The Verge)+ Tech platforms will be forced to remove such material within 48 hours of being notified. (CNN)+ It’s only the sixth bill he’s signed into law during his second term. (NBC News) 2 There’s now a buyer for 23andMe Pharma firm Regeneron has swooped in and offered to help it keep operating. (WSJ $)+ The worth of your genetic data? $17. (404 Media)+ Regeneron promised to prioritize security and ethical use of that data. (TechCrunch) 3 Microsoft is adding Elon Musk’s AI models to its cloud platformErr, is that a good idea? (Bloomberg $)+ Musk wants to sell Grok to other businesses. (The Information $) 4 Autonomous cars trained to react like humans cause fewer road injuriesA study found they were more cautious around cyclists, pedestrians and motorcyclists. (FT $)+ Waymo is expanding its robotaxi operations out of San Francisco. (Reuters)+ How Wayve’s driverless cars will meet one of their biggest challenges yet. (MIT Technology Review) 5 Hurricane season is on its wayDOGE cuts means we’re less prepared. (The Atlantic $)+ COP30 may be in crisis before it’s even begun. (New Scientist $) 6 Telegram handed over data from more than 20,000 users In the first three months of 2025 alone. (404 Media) 7 GM has stopped exporting cars to ChinaTrump’s tariffs have put an end to its export plans. (NYT $) 8 Blended meats are on the risePlants account for up to 70% of these new meats—and consumers love them. (WP $)+ Alternative meat could help the climate. Will anyone eat it? (MIT Technology Review) 9 SAG-AFTRA isn’t happy about Fornite’s AI-voiced Darth VaderIt’s slapped Fortnite’s creators with an unfair labor practice charge. (Ars Technica)+ How Meta and AI companies recruited striking actors to train AI. (MIT Technology Review) 10 This AI model can swiftly build Lego structuresThanks to nothing more than a prompt. (Fast Company $) Quote of the day “Platforms have no incentive or requirement to make sure what comes through the system is non-consensual intimate imagery.” —Becca Branum, deputy director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, says the new Take It Down Act could fuel censorship, Wired reports. One more thing Are friends electric?Thankfully, the difference between humans and machines in the real world is easy to discern, at least for now. While machines tend to excel at things adults find difficult—playing world-champion-level chess, say, or multiplying really big numbers—they find it hard to accomplish stuff a five-year-old can do with ease, such as catching a ball or walking around a room without bumping into things.This fundamental tension—what is hard for humans is easy for machines, and what’s hard for machines is easy for humans—is at the heart of three new books delving into our complex and often fraught relationship with robots, AI, and automation. They force us to reimagine the nature of everything from friendship and love to work, health care, and home life. Read the full story. —Bryan Gardiner We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.) + Congratulations to William Goodge, who ran across Australia in just 35 days!+ A British horticulturist has created a garden at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show just for dogs.+ The Netherlands just loves a sidewalk garden.+ Did you know the T Rex is a north American hero? Me neither

TSMC, Cadence, KLA, Siemens and Synopsys are advancing semiconductor manufacturing by adopting the NVIDIA CUDA-X and NVIDIA Blackwell platforms.   NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, NVIDIA Grace CPUs, high-speed NVIDIA NVLink fabrics and switches, and domain-specific NVIDIA CUDA-X libraries like NVIDIA cuDSS and NVIDIA cuLitho are improving computational lithography and device simulation for advanced chip manufacturing. “Our collaboration with NVIDIA represents a significant advancement in semiconductor process simulation,” said Jeff Wu, fellow and director for the technology computer-aided design division at TSMC. “The computational acceleration from CUDA-X libraries and NVIDIA Grace Blackwell will expedite process development by simulating complex manufacturing processes and device behaviors at lower cost.” NVIDIA cuLitho and Blackwell speed up lithography by up to 25x. GPU acceleration enables leading lithography providers and semiconductor manufacturers such as TSMC to predict and correct lithography issues before production at an unprecedented speed.   Earlier this month, electronic design automation (EDA) software and services provider Cadence announced its Millennium M2000 platform, built exclusively on NVIDIA Blackwell for the EDA market. The M2000 is a scalable turnkey solution for deploying NVIDIA Grace Blackwell and CUDA-X libraries with a fully accelerated portfolio of Cadence design tools. Cadence is also one of the first to adopt NVIDIA NVLink Fusion, enabling custom silicon scale-up to meet the requirements of demanding workloads for model training and agentic AI inference. By adopting NVLink Fusion, Cadence allows hyperscalers to optimize and validate across the entire design spectrum.  This month, Cadence announced the Millennium M2000 AI Supercomputer to transform silicon, system and drug design. Based on the NVIDIA Blackwell platform, options include the NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 system for tackling massive system-on-a-chip, 3D-IC, and subsystem implementation and signoff using Cadence Cerebrus AI Studio and Cadence multiphysics system analysis tools, as well as the new NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition GPU for smaller chip designs and simulations. “Our collaboration with NVIDIA has always been about pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in both electronic design automation and system design and analysis,” said Michael Jackson, corporate vice president and general manager of the system design and analysis group at Cadence. “The Millennium M2000 platform, built exclusively on NVIDIA Blackwell, isn’t just about faster simulation — it’s about redefining the infrastructure for AI-driven innovation, enabling what was previously impossible.”  Siemens is harnessing the parallel processing power of the NVIDIA CUDA-X libraries and the groundbreaking performance of the Grace Blackwell platform to significantly accelerate its Calibre platform.  This integration enables unprecedented speed and accuracy in critical semiconductor manufacturing steps, including optical proximity correction with nanometer precision, comprehensive physical verification, robust design for manufacturability analysis, thorough reliability verification and seamless integration and automation across the design-to-manufacturing flow. “Leveraging NVIDIA CUDA-X and Grace Blackwell in our Calibre platform enables faster, more efficient optical proximity correction without sacrificing accuracy for advanced semiconductor nodes,” said Mike Ellow, CEO of Siemens EDA. “This is especially important as chip complexity continues to grow.” Additionally, Synopsys, a leading EDA software and services provider, is using NVIDIA CUDA-X libraries and Blackwell for its EDA tools, including Synopsys PrimeSim, Proteus, S-Litho, Sentaurus Device and QuantumATK. By integrating with CUDA-X libraries, Synopsys achieved new benchmark results for Sentaurus Device, QuantumATK, and S-Litho on the NVIDIA B200, demonstrating a 12x, 15x and 20x scale-up, respectively, versus comparable CPU infrastructure.  In addition, Synopsys recently announced at NVIDIA GTC that they project Synopsys PrimeSim to run 30x faster and Synopsys Proteus to run 20x faster on NVIDIA Blackwell platforms. “Synopsys has a long history of collaborating with NVIDIA on accelerating our EDA solutions to maximize the capabilities of engineering teams. Building on our industry-first approach, Synopsys is leveraging NVIDIA’s Blackwell architecture across our TCAD, computational lithography and atomistic simulation products to unlock unprecedented performance gains,” said Sanjay Bali, senior vice president of strategy and product management at Synopsys. “By integrating NVIDIA’s CUDA-X libraries and Blackwell architecture into our industry-leading simulation solvers, we’ve achieved transformative speedups and redefined how EDA is enabling semiconductor manufacturing innovation.” Semiconductor process control equipment manufacturer KLA and NVIDIA have worked together for over a decade to advance KLA’s physics-based AI with optimized high-performance computing solutions that tap into GPUs and the CUDA ecosystem.  The value of process control in semiconductor manufacturing is increasing due to AI-driven trends, such as more complex designs, accelerated product cycles, higher value wafer volumes and growing advanced packaging demand. KLA’s industry-leading inspection and metrology systems capture and process images by running complex AI algorithms to find the most critical semiconductor defects at lightning-fast speeds. KLA is looking forward to evaluating the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition with CUDA-X libraries for certain markets to further accelerate inference workloads powering the semiconductor chip manufacturing process. By embedding NVIDIA Blackwell into EDA, manufacturing and process control, NVIDIA is helping the semiconductor industry deliver the next generation of high-performance chips faster. Learn more about the latest AI advancements at NVIDIA GTC Taipei, running May 21-22 at COMPUTEX.

Druckmann states that he has taken on "more of a producer role."

We're glad to see everyone enjoying Apocalypse Rising! It's been three weeks since release and this marks our first major balance pass! We are also releasing the modding SDK so users can look into our tools for custom projects! Posted by FRAYDO on May 16th, 2025 We are glad to see everyone playing and enjoying Apocalypse Rising so far! It has been three week since release and this update marks our first major balance pass. The initial feedback has reported that the "Allies are overpowered", and we aim to address that notion with this major patch. This post will include patches 0.9.0.1 through 0.9.0.5 in descending order to describe everything that has been adjusted since our release. At the bottom of this post, after all of the patch notes, we are also including information on the release of our Modding SDK! Patches 0.9.0.3 - 0.9.0.5 There are three patches here because we ran internal testing before settling on the final build (0.9.0.5) Based on game experience and player feedback, it was identified that the Allies were winning the majority of the games. This patch brings the Soviets up to compensate whilst also nerfing some key Allied units. Soviet will now have more of a chance in the face of the Allied teamwork machine. Bug Fixes Fixed several crashes reported by players via crash dumps (thank you!) Fixed Nvidia App "game filters" crashing the game Keyboard keys no longer get stuck when the window loses focus (e.g. Alt+Tab would leave Alt stuck) Less hitching when units spawn Fixed an issue relating to Chrono Miner Objective Markers Performance has been improved by optimizing some game objects General Changes Team remixing/rebalancing logic was re-implemented to improve team variety for players from match to match Players can no longer refill when in combat. Players can now set max FPS to any value instead of an arbitrary selection Bots can path their way out of buildings now (mostly) Mesh optimizations have been applied to the War Factories and Refineries. The legacy "Battlefield Key Success Tips" document has been removed from the game. Several PT icons have been updated Reinforcement Bays are no longer targetable by enemies. Kill messages: Grand Cannon kill strings no longer fill the feed on FreezingStraits. Added crushed kill string. Revolver kill string has been added to the nagant. Shotgun kill string has been added to the shotguns. Map Changes Fort Bradley: Fixed a bunch of buildings, improving performance and removing ngons Adjusted some of the building roofs to prevent degenerate gameplay FreezingStraits: Added visible boundary stripes. The hills behind the bases are now considered out of bounds. Removed a chunk of terrain sticking into the Radar Tower basement. LittleBigLake: Fixed a floating rock on the cliff behind the Allied base. SnowBound: The cliff to the northwest of the Allied base is now considered out-of-bounds. Fixed a couple texture seams at the main road north of the Allied base. Updated the screenshot on loading screen. Updated the overhead map. Dune Patrol: Adjusted out of bounds area to prevent degenerate gameplay General Balance Changes The targeting ranges of several weapons were increased by 3m in order to for units to be able to target enemies a little way before they are actually in range. Lock-on untrack time increased: 1.25s -> 1.75s Prevented some map objects from being locked onto (i.e. Bridge repair Huts) Deployed Infantry Damage Resistance Reduced: 50%->40% Damage from Explosions now affects Mines, C4 and Dynamite Infantry that are crushed by vehicles now register on the kill feed Proximity Mines are now placed at the player's feet. This is in order to prevent mines from being placed on walls and in other weird places. All thrown cooldown-based weapons now autoswap back to the unit's Primary after being used. i.e. After using Molotovs, the Conscript will switch back to it's PPSH automatically Dogs can now reload their bite and bark weapons whilst sprinting. Allies Guardian GI Secondary Fire now shoots a missile that does not lock-on Rocketeer Jetpack Cooldown increased 1s->2s Projectile Damage Reduced: 25->20 Projectile Explosion Damage Outer Radius Increased: 3m->3.25m Projectile Explosion Damage Inner Radius Increased: 1.5m->2m Sniper Projectile Range Decreased: 350m -> 220m Corrected Damage Falloff Range (Within the last 50m of range, the damage falls off by around half) Navy SEAL Projectile Warhead changed: Bullet -> Bullet Anti Infantry This change nerfs the MP5N vs armoured targets Primary Projectile Damage: 15->14 Primary Projectile Spray angle Increased: 0.24°->0.75° Secondary Projectile Damage: 15->14 Secondary Projectile Burst Delay time: 0.12s->0.15s Secondary Projectile Spray angle Increased: 0.1°->0.5° C4 Inventory Count Reduced: 2->1 C4 Explosion Damage Increased: 60->90 Tanya Projectile Damage Increased: 20->22 Projectile Rate of Fire Increased: 6->12 Weapon now fires in 2 round bursts Weapon Clip Sized Increased 18->36 Tanya is supposed to be holding two pistols, so this new clip size aims to reflect that C4 Range: 5m->10m IFV Guardian GI Range Decreased: 120->115 Seal Damage Increased 12->14 Rate of Fire Increased 14->16 Range Increased 95m->115m Sniper Changed Warhead form Bullet_AV to Bullet_AI Projectile Damage: 102 -> 100 Projectile Range: 300 -> 275 Corrected Damage Falloff Range (Within the last 50m of range, the damage falls off by around half) Mirage Tank Range Decreased: 115->110 Prism Tank Projectile Range Increased 145m->150m Tank Destroyer Projectile Range Decreased: 135m->120m Cost Increased: 900->1000 Howitzer Adjusted the model so that it looks less like the Tank Destroyer Harrier Projectile Range Decreased: 130m->120m Black Eagle Projectile Velocity Decreased: 120->100 Projectile Range Decreased: 130m->120m Soviets Crazy Ivan Grenade Launcher Explosion Damage Increased: 50->75 Large Dynamite Inventory Count Reduced: 2->1 Large Dynamite Explosion Damage Increased: 60->90 Terrorist Self Explosion Damage Inner Radius Increased: 4m->6m Weapons are now hidden when not being held. Boris Airtsrike Timer Reduced: 15s->12s Terror Drone The physics have been altered for better handling and cliff climbing performance Jump Height Increased: 12->15 Flak Track Has a new model! Weapon Reload Time: 1.5s ->1.25s Primary Projectile Damage Decreased 33->30 Secondary Projectile Velocity Increased: 400->500 V3 Rocket Launcher Projectile Velocity Decreased: 112->90 Projectile Gravity Increased: 7.0->3.75 Projectile Extension Adjusted Explosion Damage Inner Radius Increased: 10m->12m ***TOTAL RANGE IS AROUND 230m*** Tesla Tank: Weapon handling adjusted to reduce the arc of fire overall Demo Truck Cost Reduced: 1500->1400 Explosion Damage Increased: 400->500 Radiation Radius Increased: 24m->30m Apocalypse Tank Cannon Velocity Increased 250m/s->275m/s Missile Range Increased 135m->140m Missile Lock-on Time Decreased: 1.25->2 Missile Turn Rate increased: 350°/s->420°/s Siege Chopper Model updated with Rotor Blur Cameras re-worked Physics altered to make the controls more responsive Projectile Explosion Damage Outer Radius Increased: 1.5m->2.5m Projectile Explosion Damage Inner Radius Increased: 1m->1.85m Kirov Airship The Kirov now takes half as much damage from all non-AA weapons Points Given on Death: 200 -> 175 MG Damage Increased: 10->11 MG Spray Decreased: 1°->0.9° Bomb Impact Damage Increased: 110->125 Explosion Damage Increased: 100->110 Patch 0.9.0.2 This patch introduced more fixes and altered the balance of some of the most egregious units ingame. Bug Fixes Fixed a crash when spotting a disguised Mirage Tank as an Attack Dog, Tentatively fixed an exploit where GIs and GGIs could become invincible after using a parachute General Changes Added Siege Chopper Weapon Strings, Removed a Projectile Blocker from the doors of the Allied Power Plant Elm and Aca trees now have less upper branch projectile collision Fixed Allied Supply Truck and Siege Chopper entry/exit zones Fixed Shotgun Scaling Terror Drones and Robot Tanks now tell the pilot that the vehicle will be killed if they leave it Added a missing texture fron the loading screen AI turrets on the Battle Fortress and War Miner will now search for targets Terror Drone now has an attack sound Desolator Weapons no longer leave black marks everywhere New Soviet Technician PT Icon Re-ordered the infantry purchase list When using Artillery Auto-Aim feature when out of range, the auto aim will now adopt the max weapon elevation Updated the Credits Map Changes Little Big Lake: Fixed a hole in the ground by the Allied base. Adjusted pathfinding for Harvesters. Dune Patrol: Removed out-of-bounds lines in the small infantry tunnel next to the Soviet base. Snowbound: Added more ground clutter New terrain textures Added some rocks Fort Bradley: Fixed a bunch of NGons on the Urban Buildings Balance Changes The Attack Dog's Bark can now pierce through multiple targets Engineer + IFV Repair Reduced: 0.65 -> 0.6 Technician + IFV Repair Reduced: 0.32 -> 0.3 Technician IFv Self Healing Halved Deployed Infantry now take 50% less incoming damage from all sources (was inconsistent beforehand) AA Flak Damage vs Helicopters Increased Sniper IFV Laser now uses the correct range Patch 0.9.0.1 Released shortly after the game launched, this patch contained key fixes to the game. Bug Fixes Fixed a Server Crash that was sometimes occurring when a player added a vehicle to the queue and then left the server Siege Chopper can no longer deploy in mid-air Siege Chopper animation has been fixed Fixed an issue with Fort Bradley where Allies were getting 500 free points at the start of the match Fixed some graphical issues with Fort Bradley General Changes Added Siege Cameras to the V3 Launcher and Howitzer Added Encyclopaedia entries for the weapons and infantry Ricardo Engineer credit to Scorched Earth! Check out his RA2 and Apocalypse Rising videos on his YouTube channel! Youtube.com Over the course of these past few weeks, we have heard several requests from our players to release the tools for the game so they can make mods, dive into unit statistics, and translate the game into various languages. We are proud to announce we've made the modding SDK available here: Gitlab.com Whenever we release we will aim to update the tools to match the latest public version, much like we do with the server (also found here: Gitlab.com). If you're looking for tutorials and documentation, we have a wealth of info in our Tutorials forum but also on Tacitus, which is our documentation resource. Links below the image. Tacitus: Documentation Tutorials: W3D Tutorials Over time we will aim to add more to these tools, like pieces of example content and maps for you guy to dissect. In the meantime though, we can't wait to see what you'll all end up making and if you need any help creating things, please feel free to reach out to us over Discord! Found here: Discord.gg Keep 'Em Coming! That's all for now. Please feel free to leave your feedback and report bugs in our Discord and on our forums. We've got eyes on both platforms, so we'll make sure that every point gets a fair shake. Thanks again for supporting the game and our community! - The W3D Hub Team

Author Hi Everyone, It took me 6 years to figure out how this game is going to work but I believe I succeeded and The Guiding Spirit finally got announced last week! I'm working on the demo right now, coming later this year for free.https://store.steampowered.com/app/3596380/The_Guiding_Spirit/The game is a party-based interpersonality simulator with role playing elements in a multi-chaptered storybook format. Yes, you read that right. In this game, you don't control the heroes, you create them. You characterize them. You guide them. And well... you might very well be the cause of their death, if you are not careful enough.It has a classic RPG setup with a twist: you create a party of heroes but once you start the story, they are on their own and you can only pray they will work together and suvive (and potentially figure out who trapped them?).I'm going to share development updates and behind the scenes posts on my Dev Blog and YouTube channel for anyone interested! It was a long road (and still a lot of work to come), this project was at one point a “classic” RPG and another time it seemed it will be a Tabletop RPG simulator, but those projects did not work out so I took the lessons learned, kept iterating and… this is where we are today!Cheers,Dice Impact

Photo Credit: YouTube/ Computex Taipei  Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon 8 Elite during its Snapdragon Tech Summit in October 2024 Highlights Qualcomm has revealed the dates for its next Snapdragon Summit The chipmaker will hold the event in late September The new chip is likely to support LPDDR5x and LPDDR6 RAM Advertisement Qualcomm announced the schedule for its upcoming Snapdragon Summit during Computex 2025 in Taipei. The annual launch event will take place in late September this year, slightly earlier than Qualcomm's typical launch window. The annual summit is expected to introduce the next-generation chipset, tentatively called the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2. For reference, the current Snapdragon 8 Elite was unveiled during last October's Snapdragon Summit. Devices featuring the new Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 are anticipated to arrive in the market by October.Snapdragon Summit Set to Take Place in SeptemberQualcomm President and CEO Cristiano Amon, during his keynote speech at Computex 2025, revealed that the next Snapdragon Summit will take place between September 23 and September 25 this year in Hawaii. That's ahead of schedule compared to previous years—for instance, last year's Snapdragon Summit was held in late October. The Snapdragon Summit has long served as Qualcomm's platform for unveiling its next-generation flagship smartphone SoCs. We can expect the company to follow suit this year with the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 announcement.Handsets featuring the new chip could land in October. The new launch timeline of the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 could give smartphone companies ample time to integrate the new chipset into their flagship devices.  The chip is rumoured to offer 25 percent improved performance over the Snapdragon 8 Elite. The Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 is said to use TSMC's advanced 3nm (N3P) process node. It is said to come with second-generation Oryon CPU cores and offer a base frequency of 4.4GHz. It is said to support LPDDR5x and LPDDR6 RAM.Xiaomi 16 and Xiaomi 16 Pro are believed to be the first handsets to arrive with the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 chipset. The OnePlus 15, Realme GT 8,  iQOO 14, Vivo X300 Ultra and Samsung Galaxy S26 series could also be among the first smartphones to feature the new Snapdragon chipset. The Xiaomi 15 series was the first to feature Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC last year. For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube. Further reading: Qualcomm, Snapdragon 8 Elite 2, Snapdragon 8 Elite, Snapdragon Summit Nithya P Nair Nithya P Nair is a journalist with more than five years of experience in digital journalism. She specialises in business and technology beats. A foodie at heart, Nithya loves exploring new places (read cuisines) and sneaking in Malayalam movie dialogues to spice up conversations. More Related Stories

Microsoft 365 is kind of like that ex you simply can’t get away from. How’s that possible? It’s because you keep going back to it every month, paying a pesky recurring fee for access, all while complaining on and on about how annoying it is.  It’s time to break up with Microsoft 365 and level up with Microsoft Office instead, especially since the 2024 edition is finally on the shelves. It’s compatible with both Mac and PC, comes with AI tools designed for personal and professional use, and is yours for life once you pay the one-time fee of $159.97 (down from $249.99). Move aside, Microsoft 365: Office is here You’ll finally be freed from your ex (your old Microsoft 365 subscription) once you invest in this Microsoft Office lifetime license—and the savings will seriously add up after about 18 months. Not only that, but you’ll also be able to avoid the Microsoft 365 price increase (an extra $20 yearly!) that Microsoft just announced. So, what’s all the fuss about the latest version of Microsoft Office? Check out just a few of the improvements your favorite apps got:  Here’s another reason why you’ll be glad you dumped Microsoft 365. Like your ex, the subscription probably didn’t come with too many rewarding perks. With Microsoft Office 2024, your favorite productivity apps arrive not only with new features but also AI-powered assistance. Don’t worry—you don’t need to be a tech aficionado to use these features and maximize your workflow. All you need to do is click on a button to select what function you want to do. Let AI help you avoid writer’s block while drafting a paper in Word or have it automatically generate charts and graphs in Excel! Plus, this license is extra business-friendly, thanks to its inclusion of Outlook for emails and calendar organization. Sorry, Microsoft 365. A better partner has arrived. Upgrade and own your favorite Microsoft apps forever with this Microsoft Office 2024 lifetime license for your Mac or PC, now $159.97 while licenses last. This offer expires June 1 at 11:59 p.m. PT. StackSocial prices subject to change. _ Microsoft Office 2024 Home & Business for Mac or PC Lifetime License See Deal

Democrats have a lot to be excited about when they look at President Donald Trump’s polls. Scores of voters have soured on his job performance since he took office. And that group of unhappy voters includes some of Trump’s new 2024 converts — the young voters, disaffected voters, and voters of color who left the Democratic coalition to join Trump’s.But Trump’s losses aren’t translating to Democratic gains. The polling so far suggests that the voters disillusioned by Trump similarly dislike the Democrats — and are more likely to leave politics altogether than align themselves with the Democratic Party.Congressional Democrats — and their party’s national brand — remain dismal: Some 37 percent of voters view the party favorably, while about 60 percent view them unfavorably, according to YouGov’s tracking surveys.Compare that to the GOP’s slightly better standing among voters in the same polls: 40 percent approve while 55 percent disapprove. Despite the early chaos and deluge of news during the first months of the Trump presidency, Republicans are either viewed more favorably than Democrats or running even with them in head-to-head polling.That dynamic is very different from how the parties were viewed during Trump’s first term. At this point in 2017, when Trump’s job approval was similarly spiraling downward, Democrats enjoyed a modest, but constant, edge of support over Republicans as a majority of the country turned even more negatively against Trump’s first-term agenda and performance. They sustained that advantage — generally a 3–6 point margin — through the 2018 “blue wave” midterms and beyond.In 2025, the picture is more evenly divided: a broadly unpopular president and two unpopular parties.A few interconnected reasons explain why Democrats are stuck in this conundrum — and offer some insight into what they have to do to get out of it.Democrats aren’t seen as a credible alternative — yetSo why aren’t newly anti-Trump voters flocking to Democrats? Perhaps the most important reason is that they don’t see Democrats as a better alternative. Consider April’s ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll, which was taken at what is, so far, the nadir of Trump’s public support. Despite broad discontent over Trump’s tariffs and inflation, Americans still said they trusted him “to do a better job handling the country’s main problems” over Democrats by a 7-point margin — 37 percent to 30 percent. Another 30 percent said neither could do a better job, while 4 percent said both could do it equally.Similarly, Americans are more likely to say that the Democratic Party is “out of touch” with the average person than either Trump or the Republican Party. About 70 percent of respondents say so about the Democrats, while 64 percent and 60 percent say so for Republicans and Trump respectively, according to that April poll.And what about those Trump’s newest voters — the youth and people of color who joined him in 2024? The data we have suggests they may be increasingly unhappy with Trump, but they’re not running back to Democrats either.Take the Spring 2025 Harvard Youth Poll, a project from that university’s Institute of Politics which has been specifically polling and tracking young Americans under the age of 30 since 2000.It found that young Americans’ approval of Trump and congressional Republicans has remained steady over the last few years. But views of the Democratic Party have collapsed from 48 percent approval in 2020 to 23 percent in 2025. Young Black voters, specifically, have grown more supportive of Trump since 2017, the polling suggests. And the unifying theme, Harvard’s analysts find, is a growing distrust of government — and political parties in general — even as the general ideology and values that young Americans hold seem to be moderating a little.Something similar is happening among Latino voters, according to a poll conducted over the past month by the Latino firm Equis Research and Data for Progress.Per the poll, Latino and Hispanic voters’ support for the president is “trending slightly below” 2024 levels. Yet he hasn’t seen a complete collapse in support, in part because some degree of voters still approve of his immigration, border security, and public safety policies, even if a growing share think he’s overreaching. That’s another difference from 2017, when these voters were strongly opposed.But Trump’s loss with Latinos does not appear to be Democrats’ gain. Latino Americans, including young men and Biden 2020-Trump 2024 voters, seem to be rejecting both parties. The firm notes that among Latinos who dislike either Trump’s immigration or economic policies, these voters “still don’t trust Democrats more on the [issues].”Plenty of voters are waiting and seeingAnother reason Democrats don’t seem to be gaining much support among Trump disapprovers is that there are plenty of voters who are biding their time. Polls and anecdotal data suggest there are voters who are still willing to give Trump the benefit of the doubt even if they are disappointed. They are unsure or unenthusiastic about some of Trump’s job performance, but they’re not willing to go so far as to say they would redo their vote or switch parties next year.The gap between Trump’s support and the GOP’s support, for example, suggests that some voters might disapprove of how Trump has implemented his agenda, but still back Republicans in general. And the stabilizing of Trump’s approval rating as he does less may signal that voters are returning to him as he rolls back or stands down some of his more controversial actions.These kinds of voters show up a lot in focus groups conducted this spring, including those reported on by the New York Times, and in the wild.While reporting in Philadelphia on remorseful Trump voters earlier this month, I encountered many voters who said they wouldn’t redo their vote, but they still felt a bit let down with some of Trump’s approach to the job. At least anecdotally, young Trump voters tended to say this. Nikita, a senior at Drexel who spoke to me and Today, Explained producer Miles Bryan, admitted he “expected things to be a little different.” But he also thought it was too soon to make a definitive judgment on the Trump presidency or his future vote.“[I’d] probably give him either to the end of the year, or just give him a year at first just to see how things are going,” he said. “He’s been in office for what, a few months now? So I guess it’s not enough time yet to really see … if these tariffs are gonna play a big role in our economy and really spike up prices for a while. So just give it some time to see how things play out.”The polling data also shows this dynamic. Trump hit a low point in his popularity in April, when he announced his tariff regime and after a slate of negative coverage related to DOGE and his immigration policy. As he dialed back his tariffs, DOGE receded, and headlines moved on to other news items, his approval ratings stabilized. Some polls are now even capturing a mid-May recovery. And through it all, most Trump voters, even in polls capturing growing disapproval, say they probably wouldn’t change their votes. Instead, it appears that as Trump changed the implementation of his policies, the slide in approval from disaffected Republicans slowed down.Disengaged Trump voters aren’t necessarily Democratic voters-in-waitingFinally, there’s another kind of voter who may be peeling away from Trump’s camp, but doesn’t seem to be Democratic bait: those who tune out of politics entirely, don’t follow the news avidly, and don’t have strong allegiances to any party.These low-propensity, low-information voters were the kinds who Trump was able to reach in 2024, contributing to rightward swings across gender, age, and racial demographics. Something about Trump uniquely appealed to him — what they might have heard about him on social media, podcasts, or from influencers — or they liked the snippets of his agenda and campaign that broke through to them. Democrats are still figuring out how to reach this demographic of voter — which skews younger — but they don’t seem to have broken the code yet, meaning it may be more difficult for Democratic candidates to try to win them over, or reach them at all, in the future.Earlier this month, the data analyst G. Elliot Morris quantified how much these kinds of voters have turned on Trump, finding a 33-point drop in support among people who pay “hardly” any attention to the news “at all.” That decline eclipses the drops among more engaged groups of Americans — his support among those Americans who follow the news “most of the time” has fallen by 14 points, for example, and started off at a much lower baseline of support to begin with. What’s driving that sharp drop is still unclear. Other data sources suggest it’s still the least engaged voters who have more positive views of certain Trump policies than more informed voters. But what remains true is that these voters aren’t very ideological, aren’t married to a political party, and thus aren’t the kind of people who would necessarily turn out in a midterm election. That’s another complication for Democrats who hope to profit off Trump’s overall popularity decline.Democrats will have to address these challenges in the coming monthsFor now, Trump and his party’s standing seem to have reached a new equilibrium. He is unpopular, but still in a much better place than at this point during his first term.Still, what’s old is new: Democrats have been here before. A November 2017 CNN headline — “Poll: Views of Democratic Party hit lowest mark in 25 years” — reads almost exactly like a 2025 one. Just one year later, Democrats would flip 41 seats in the House. As Split Ticket data analysts Armin Thomas and Max McCall write, “the opposition party tends to become more popular in the run up to the midterms while the opposite happens for the incumbent party,” and unpopularity hasn’t stopped sweeping midterms wins by Election Day.And a lot more is going to change in the coming months. Candidates will launch campaigns and make their case. Ads and rallies will start picking up. And the media environment will be swamped with election talk once again. Generic “Democrat” and “Republican” views will turn into personalized and specific contests between real people. And voters of all sorts will get exposed and educated to political debates. That’s the time when the incumbent party gets scrutinized more, and the opposition party may begin to look more favorable.Democratic victories next year will surely depend on winning over some of the voters Trump seems to be turning off. But as we’ve seen in the Trump era, midterm and off-year elections tend to bring out electorates much more favorable to them than to Republicans. The same may happen next year.See More:

Google IO 2025 takes place today, and you’ll be able to watch the keynote livestream right here, via the video player above. While IO is predominantly a developer conference, the opening keynote of the two-day event always delivers exciting news on new products and services Google has been working on. We’re expecting a bumper crop of announcements from the search giant, including more information on Android 16 – although Google revealed a lot last week in its Android Show – updates to its Gemini AI, and possibly new VR headsets / AR glasses alongside its dedicated Android XR platform. Related Google I/O 2025: Everything you need to know We might also get updates on Android Auto and WearOS 6, but we wouldn’t be surprised if Google focuses heavily on AI. When is the Google IO 2025 keynote? The Google IO 2025 keynote starts at 10am PT / 1pm ET on May 20, 2025. It’s being held in-person at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California. How can I watch the Google IO 2025 keynote? You can watch the opening keynote via the video player at the top of this article, where Google says you’ll “learn the latest news, announcements, and AI updates.” The keynote is also being livestreamed on YouTube and on the Google IO website. The opening keynote is followed by Google’s developer keynote, which kicks off at 1.30pm PT / 4.30pm ET, which you’ll also be able to watch via the IO website. How long is the Google IO 2025 keynote? While Google hasn’t confirmed how long this year’s keynote will be, history suggests we’ll be in for a lengthy session. The 2024 keynote ran for one hour, 52 minutes, while the 2023 keynote ran for two hours and five minutes. Basically, make sure you’ve got enough snacks to last two hours. While you wait for the Google IO 2025 keynote to start, why not familiarise yourself with everything announced last year, at Google IO 2024.

charles taylor - stock.adobe.com Opinion Microsoft’s wartime pact with the EU rings hollow - and could spell trouble for UK IT buyers Microsoft has moved to assure its European customers that it will fight any attempt by President Trump to disrupt their ability to access its services, but can UK customers take the company at its word? By Owen Sayers, Secon Solutions Published: 20 May 2025 Microsoft has moved to re-assure governments across the European Union (EU) that it will fight any move by President Trump to interrupt services, should relations between Brussels and Washington deteriorate further, causing the United States to make cloud services a gambling chit in a trade war.  The company promised Europe it would “promptly and vigorously contest such a measure,” yet its overtures to EU customers should leave its governments confused, rather than assured. Its tacit recognition that the much-vaunted Microsoft EU Boundary might provide its European customers with little real protection from US interventions – despite taking over two years to implement – cannot be glossed over.  The issue in play is not just that Microsoft, being a US-headquartered ‘communication services provider’, is subject to many American laws that make transfers of data to them a complicated process. But that they might no longer be able to give guarantees of continuity of service if, for example, President Trump should wake up one morning and decide to order them to cease their EU operations. This admission, coming on top of well documented Microsoft global service outages and serial security compromises in recent years, will almost certainly stoke any fires of concern.  Such a possibility might have seemed remote just a few months ago, but Trump’s recent search for effective levers to exert control over other countries as part of his “America First” initiative means that what was previously a low risk, with negligible likelihood but massive impact, is now much more likely and could perhaps even be proximate. Microsoft president Brad Smith clearly agrees, as evidenced by his new comments about pre-emptive measures and offsets.  Certainly, that is the view many readers will hold after Smith’s somewhat clumsily presented efforts to calm the cloud market that he admits drives 25% of Microsoft’s global revenues, and is clearly important for him to protect. Telling foreign leaders that Microsoft is embarking on a crusade of change, as he repeatedly did, flies in the face of his attempts to thwart regulatory interventions regarding the software giant’s restrictive cloud licensing practices and grudging moves to unbundle its software from its operating system in the European Union. They might also consider that previous positive approaches and engagements from Microsoft, and even directly from Smith, have not prevented them from levelling blame at the EU when things go wrong. As the company did during the wholly EU-unrelated Crowdstrike-initiated global service outage. At best, the historic relationship between Microsoft and European leaders has been spasmodic, and it would be understandable if they take these new assurances with a huge pinch of salt. Microsoft now plans to further address these new risks through the creation of a new EU board to manage its expanded datacentre estates in Europe, whilst ignoring that ‘branch-office’ management does not in fact change the nature of its US-centric operations, and nor can they prevent the effects of any Presidential diktat. Time and again Microsoft has attempted to address legitimate consumer and EU-member government concerns through measures that are presented as forward-thinking and positive, but have zero effective benefit when analysed. For example, UK FOI disclosures made in June 2024 confirmed the long-held suspicion that Microsoft is dependent on the ability to process data globally wherever they choose for both their Azure and Microsoft 365 cloud service families, and this – not layers of localised senior execs – is at the root of their problems. Due to their global operating model any EU board managing datacentres will have no practical ability to technically or legally protect EU data from a US Government choosing to exert its entirely legitimate, if controversial, control over them and the European data they manage. What should cause immediate concern for the UK is that these overtures to the EU do not consider the UK at all – because it lies entirely outside of the Microsoft EU Data Boundary, and doesn’t appear to be included in these new promises either. Should companies with a foot in both UK and Europe decide the protections offered up by Microsoft are indeed effective they may therefore need to re-locate their data and workloads to benefit from them, and history suggests that where the work shifts, so invariably do the key jobs. Microsoft, in any event, appears to feel that such efforts in the UK are unnecessary given the level of dependency the UK government already has on the Seattle tech giant, whether that be in the workings of the civil service, the NHS or national infrastructure. A view that can only have been solidified by the key positions the government has given over to Microsoft executives to effectively steer the UK’s national technology strategy. This is what should be the attention-grabber for Microsoft’s UK customers today; not that Microsoft is making big commitments and high-profile promises to the EU, but that the tech giant no longer feels the need to do the same for its UK operations and, as a result, UK consumers and companies can expect to suffer as a result. With their choices limited and their data access subject to the whims of foreign powers, with a government too dependent on Microsoft to put up a fight. Read more about Microsoft cloud Microsoft makes ‘digital commitments’ amid pledge to continue growing its European datacentre footprint, in the face of growing geopolitical uncertainty Microsoft pushes back on analyst claims its changing relationship with OpenAI is forcing it to scale back its datacentre expansion plans in the US and Europe. In The Current Issue: UK critical systems at risk from ‘digital divide’ created by AI threats UK at risk of Russian cyber and physical attacks as Ukraine seeks peace deal Standard Chartered grounds AI ambitions in data governance Download Current Issue Starburst chews into the fruits of agentic – CW Developer Network Calm settles over digital identity market - for now... (Hark, is that Big Tech on the horizon?) – Computer Weekly Editors Blog View All Blogs