Now that I have two ways to make playlists, I'm making fewer than ever.

WhatsApp will soon allow users to post collages, music and new stickers as part of their WhatsApp Status. The status feature within WhatsApp functions similarly to the Stories feature on Facebook and Instagram. Users can share text, photo or video to their status, which will disappear after 24 hours. Since March, users have had the option to add a song clip to their status and can select songs from the app's music library. These music clips can be 15 seconds long when posted with photos or 60 seconds long when posted with videos. Now, those clips can be turned into stickers to add some musical flair to your status. Users also have the option to share the song itself as a standalone status update. A new “Layout” feature will let users create a collage of up to six pictures and share them in their status in a customized layout. A new sticker called “Add Yours” will ask your followers to engage with your status by responding with their own photos. Photos can also now be turned into stickers, which can then be resized and reshaped before being added to your status. According to Meta, the new status features will start rolling out soon and will become more widely available on WhatsApp in the coming months.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/whatsapp-introduces-new-creative-tools-for-status-updates-180516963.html?src=rss

There may not be a ton of new releases coming to Disney+ this month, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty to be excited about. The beginning of June sees the return of Phineas and Ferb (June 6) with the first 10 episodes of season 5. This is the first time new episodes have been released since the series ended a decade ago in June 2015, but it’s sure to be an exciting new season for both new and old fans alike as Phineas, Ferb, and their friends once again try to make their summer one to remember. Dr. Doofenshmirtz and his nemesis Perry the Platypus are also set to make their return, so there will definitely be some ‘evil’ hijinks mixed in as well. A professional recording of Frozen: The Hit Broadway Musical is set to hit Disney+ on June 20. This reimagining of the animated movie features twelve new songs and thrilling surprises. Even if you’ve seen the movie a dozen times, you’ve never seen the story quite like this. To finish out the month, Marvel’s Ironheart premieres on June 24 with the first three episodes. Set after Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, this series follows genius inventor and tech prodigy Riri Williams as she returns home to Chicago and becomes caught up with the mysterious and charming Parker Robbins a.k.a. The Hood. Riri may be incredibly gifted, but her skills will be put to the ultimate test when she has to go up against some powerful magic. Here’s everything coming to Disney+ this June. Disney+ New Releases – June 2025 June 4 Pupstruction (S2, 6 episodes)June 6 Phineas and Ferb (Season 5 Premiere – First 10 Episodes)June 8 Ocean with David Attenborough (Premiere)June 17 SALLY (Premiere)June 20 Frozen: The Hit Broadway Musical (Premiere) June 24 Ironheart (Three Episode Premiere at 6pm PT) Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! Coming in June Underdogs (Season 1)Vibe Check

Until last October, Argentinian musical duo Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso were more or less a regional act. Known for their experimental blend of Latin trap, pop, and rap, the pair had a fanbase, but still weren’t cracking more than 3,000 daily streams across services like Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube. Within a week, they shot up 4,700%—hitting 222,000 daily streams—according to exclusive data firm Luminate, which powers the Billboard charts. Suddenly Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso were global pop stars.  What changed? On Oct. 4, the pair were featured in a Tiny Desk Concert, part of NPR’s 17-year-old video series featuring musicians performing stripped-down sets behind an office desk in the cramped Washington, D.C. headquarters of the public broadcaster.  In the concert video, the artists play five songs from their debut album Baño Maria, which came out last April. Paco’s raspy voice emerges from underneath a puffy blue trapper hat while Ca7riel sports an over-the-top pout and a vest made of stitched-together heart-shaped plush toys. The pair sing entirely in Spanish, backed by their Argentinian bandmates (sporting shirts screenprinted with their visas) and an American horn section. The duo’s performance quickly took off across the internet. Within five days, it had racked up more than 1.5 million views on YouTube, and hit 11 million in little more than a month. It also reverberated across social media: the NPR Music Instagram post garnering nearly 900,000 likes, and TikToks clips garnered hundreds of thousands of views.  In a year that featured Tiny Desk performances from buzzy stars like Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter, as well as established acts like Chaka Khan and Nelly Furtado, Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso’s concert was the most-watched of 2024. It currently sits at 36 million views.  That virality translated to an influx of bookings for the duo, including a performance at Coachella in April, and upcoming slots at Glastonbury in June, FujiRock Japan in July, and Lollapalooza and Outside Lands in August. Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso’s global tour includes sold-out dates at Mexico’s 20,000-capacity Palacio de los Deportes and Chile’s 14,000-seat Movistar Areana—and was previewed by an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in April.  “Through Tiny Desk, we’ve noticed media approaching us, promoters being very interested in offering their spaces and festivals, and many media outlets opening doors to show us to the world,” says Jonathan Izquierdo, the band’s Spain-based tour manager who began working with the duo shortly after the Tiny Desk Concert debuted. “We’ve managed to sell out summer arena shows in record time and we’re constantly adding new concerts. Promoters are knocking on our doors to get the Tiny Desk effect.” Bobby Carter [Photo: Fenn Paider/courtesy NPR] Tiny Desk, Big Influence The Tiny Desk effect is something Bobby Carter, NPR Tiny Desk host and series producer, has seen firsthand. Carter has been at NPR for 25 years, including the past 11 on the Tiny Desk team. He took the reins when Bob Boilen, the longtime All Songs Considered host who launched Tiny Desk in 2008, retired in 2023.  The series—which now has more than 1,200 videos—began as an internet-first way for Boilen to showcase performances from musicians that were more intimate than what happens in bigger concert venues. The first installment, featuring folk artist Laura Gibson, went up on YouTube. Today, the concerts are posted on the NPR site with a writeup and credits, as well as YouTube, where NPR Music has 11 million followers. NPR Music also clips installments on Instagram, where it has 3 million followers.  In the early days, NPR staff reached out to touring bands to secure bookings. Acts coming through DC could often be cajoled into filming an installment before heading out to their venues for that night’s sound check. Now, musicians come to DC just for the chance to record in NPR’s offices.  “We don’t have to worry about tours anymore,” Carter says. “Labels and artists are willing to come in solely for a Tiny Desk performance. They understand the impact that a really good Tiny Desk concert can have on an artist’s career.” Early on, the stripped-down nature of the Tiny Desk—artists can’t use any audio processing or voice modulation—lent itself to rock, folk, and indie acts. But a 2014 concert with T-Pain, in which the famously autotune-heavy singer unveiled an impressive set of pipes, showed how artists from a broader array of genres could shine behind the Tiny Desk.  “Everyone knows at this point that they’re going to have to do something different in our space,” Carter says. “It’s a bigger ask for hip-hop acts and electronic acts, but most artists now understand how important it can be if they nail it.” Carter highlights rapper Doechii as an artist who overhauled her sound for her Tiny Desk concert in December. Doechii’s all-female backing band used trumpet, saxophone, guitar, and bass to transform songs from her mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal for the live setting. “If you listen to the recorded version of her music, it’s nothing like what you saw in that Tiny Desk,” Carter says.  Clips of Doechii’s Tiny Desk virtuosity lit up social media, introducing the ‘swamp princess’ to new fans. The concert even inspired a viral parody, with writer-director-comedian Gus Heagary pretending to be an NPR staffer watching the performance.    Reimagining Old Favorites It isn’t just emerging acts that totally revamp their sound for a Tiny Desk opportunity. Established artists like Usher, Justin Timberlake, and Cypress Hill have followed T-Pain’s lead and used NPR’s offices to showcase reimagined versions of some of their most popular songs. When Juvenile recorded his installment in June 2023, he was backed by horns and saxophones, a violin and cello, and John Batiste on melodica. The New Orleans rapper played an acoustic version of “Back That Azz Up” twice at the audience’s request—the first encore in the series’ history.  “I love what has happened with hip hop [on Tiny Desk],” Carter says. He explains that artists now approach the concert with the mindset: ‘I have to really rethink what I’ve been doing for however long I’ve been doing it, and present it in a whole new way.”  Tiny Desk has also helped musicians like Juvenile, gospel artist Marvin Sapp, and percussionist Sheila E to reach new audiences while reminding listeners they’re still making music. “We’re helping artists to re-emerge,” Carter says, “tapping into legacy acts and evergreen artists [to help] breathe new life into their careers.” In many ways, Tiny Desk now occupies a niche once filled by MTV Unplugged—but for the generation that has replaced cable with YouTube and streaming.   “Maybe 10, 15, 20 years ago, all of our favorite artists had this watershed moment in terms of a live performance,” Carter says. “Back in the day it was MTV Unplugged. SNL is still doing their thing. But when you think about the generation now that lives on YouTube, some of these Tiny Desk performances are going to be the milestone that people point to when it comes to live performances.” Building a Diverse Audience When Carter talks about Tiny Desk concerts reaching a new generation of listeners, it’s not conjecture. He notes that the NPR Music YouTube channel’s 11 million subscribers are “as young and diverse as it gets. It’s almost half people of color [and] much younger than the audience that listens to NPR on air, which is an audience NPR has been trying to tap for a long time,” he says.  That diversity informs some of the special series that Tiny Desk produces. The Juvenile video was part of Carter’s second run of concerts recorded for Black Music Month, in June. Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso’s video was tied to El Tiny, a Latin-focused series that debuts during Latin Heritage Month (from mid September to mid October) and is programmed by Tiny Desk producer and Alt.Latino host AnaMaria Sayer.  Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso’s tour manager, Izquierdo, has worked with artists featured in the series before. He says Tiny Desk is crucial for Latin American artists trying to break through. “I’ve realized that for U.S. radio, Latin music benefits from Tiny Desk,” he says. The Tiny Desk audience’s broad demographics are also increasingly reflected in its broader programming. Bad Bunny’s April installment took his reggaeton-inspired songs from recent album Debi Tirar Mas Fotos to their acoustic roots, using an array of traditional Puerto Rican, Latin American, and Caribbean instruments, such as the cuatro puertorriqueño, tiple, güicharo, and bongos.  “[Our] audience informs a whole lot of what we do,” Carter says. I get so many pointers from YouTube comments like ‘Have you heard of this artist?’ We’re watching all that stuff because it helps us stay sharp.” Tiny Desk heard round the world With a strong global audience, Tiny Desk has been expanding into Asia. In 2023, NPR struck a licensing deal with South Korean Telecom LG U+ and production company Something Special to produce Tiny Desk Korea for television. Last year, NPR inked a deal with the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) to launch Tiny Desk Concerts Japan. “We’re really expanding in terms of global reach,” Carter says.  Here in the States, Carter and Sayer recently launched Tiny Desk Radio, a series that will revisit some of the series’ notable installments, sharing behind-the-scenes stories from their productions and playing the audio from the concerts “Our engineers put a lot of time and effort into making sure that we sound great,” Carter says. “I hear it a lot—people tell me they prefer an artist’s Tiny Desk over anything.” That’s something Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso clearly have on their mind as they navigate the Tiny Desk effect and a new level of recognition (their daily streams haven’t dipped below 50,000 a day since the beginning of the year). The duo released an EP in February, Papota, which features four new songs, plus the recorded versions of their pared-down Tiny Desk performances. They also released a short film that recreates their Tiny Desk performance—this time in a Buenos Aires diner. One of the themes of the EP is the pair wrestling with the implications of their viral success. On the song Impostor, Ca7riel asks “¿Y ahora que vamos hacer?/El tiny desk me jodio” (What do we do now? Tiny Desk fucked me up.) It’s an overstatement, but an acknowledgment that the path they’re now on ran directly through the NPR offices. 

Outlets 8, Conghua | © Wu Siming In the landscape of contemporary Chinese urbanism, few typologies encapsulate the contradictions of late-capitalist development more vividly than the pseudo-European commercial complex. These replicated enclaves, constructed en masse in the early 2000s, were once marketed as symbols of international sophistication. Over time, however, many were abandoned, becoming architectural vestiges of speculative urbanism. Outlets 8 in Conghua, Guangzhou, is one such project that has undergone a radical architectural reinterpretation. Originally completed in 2018 but long dormant, it has been reimagined by E Plus Design in collaboration with URBANUS/LXD Studio. Through a precise, light-touch intervention, the project avoids wholesale demolition and reprograms space through color, rhythm, and landscape strategy. Outlets 8, Conghua Technical Information Architects1-14: E Plus Design Central Plaza Design: URBANUS / LXD Studio Location: Conghua District, Guangzhou, China Gross Area: 80,882 m2 | 870,000 Sq. Ft. Project Years: 2022 – 2023 Photographs: © Wu Siming This approach is like a contemporary remix of classical music. The four blocks correspond to four movements. Without extensive demolition or altering the European-style architectural rhythm, we reinterpreted the emotional tones, chords, and cadenzas. Through a blend of color and modern gestures, the outdated and disproportionate ‘faux-antique’ complex has been reorchestrated into a contemporary architectural symphony. – Li Fu, Chief Architect at E Plus Design Outlets 8, Conghua Photographs Aerial View | © Wu Siming © Wu Siming © Wu Siming © Wu Siming © Wu Siming © Wu Siming © Wu Siming © Chen Liang Liu Shan © Chen Liang Liu Shan © Chen Liang Liu Shan Outlets 8 Context and Typological Challenge Outlets 8 was initially conceived as a 110,000-square-meter faux-European outlet village. Despite its scale and investment, it struggled to resonate with local cultural dynamics and remained idle. The typology itself, rooted in nostalgic mimicry, was already facing obsolescence. The challenge, then, was not only architectural but also conceptual: how to resuscitate a typology that had become both spatially and culturally inert. The design team chose a strategy of minimal physical intervention coupled with maximal perceptual impact. Rather than demolish or drastically reconstruct, they aimed to re-signify the existing structures. This approach reflects a growing trend in urban renewal across China, where sustainability, cost-efficiency, and cultural specificity take precedence over spectacle. Spatial Transformation Through Chromatic Reprogramming After | © Wu Siming Before | Original Facade, © E+ At the intervention’s core is using color as a spatial and psychological agent. The ornament-heavy facades were stripped of their polychromatic excess and repainted in low-saturation hues. This chromatic cleansing revealed the formal rhythms of the architecture beneath. By doing so, the design avoids mimicry and opts for abstraction, reintroducing clarity to the site’s visual language. The design framework is structured as a musical metaphor, with each of the four blocks conceived as a separate movement in a visual symphony. The street-facing facades, now unified through a golden “variation,” establish a new urban frontage that is both legible and symbolically rich. A ribbon-like golden band traces across the main elevations, creating continuity and contrast between old and new volumes. In contrast, the sports block adopts a cooler, blue-toned palette, offering a different spatial and functional rhythm. New architectural insertions are rendered in transparent materials, signaling temporal and programmatic distinctions. At the center, the elliptical plaza becomes a spatial crescendo, defined by a sculptural intervention inspired by Roman aqueducts. This feature functions as a landmark and a temporal break, juxtaposing historical references with performative landscape elements. Rewriting Landscape as Urban Ecology After | © Wu Siming Before | Original Facade, © E+ Water, derived from the nearby Liuxi River, serves as the thematic and material backbone of the landscape design. Its integration is not symbolic but functional. Water flows through constructed channels, interactive fountains, and sculptural cascades that encourage observation and participation. These elements create a multisensory environment that enhances the spatial experience while reinforcing ecological awareness. The planting strategy emphasizes native species capable of withstanding Guangzhou’s subtropical climate. The design maximizes greenery wherever regulatory conditions allow, particularly along the main entrance, central corridors, and arcaded walkways. The result is a layered landscape that balances visual density with ecological resilience. Integrating landscape and architecture as a singular design operation, the project shifts away from ornamental greening toward environmental synthesis. This approach foregrounds interaction and immersion, aligning with broader shifts in landscape architecture toward performative and participatory ecologies. Programmatic Rebirth and Urban Implications After | © Wu Siming Before | Original Facade, © E+ Beyond formal and material considerations, the project redefines the programmatic potential of large-scale retail environments. Positioned as a “micro-vacation” destination, Outlets 8 is a hybrid typology. It combines retail, leisure, and outdoor experience within a cohesive spatial narrative. This reprogramming responds to changing patterns of consumption and leisure in Chinese cities, particularly among younger demographics seeking experiential value over transactional efficiency. Statistical metrics underscore the project’s social impact. In its first nine days, the outlet attracted over half a million visitors and became a trending location across multiple digital platforms. While not the focus of architectural critique, these figures reflect a successful alignment between spatial renewal and public resonance. More importantly, the project offers a replicable model for dealing with the vast inventory of misaligned commercial developments across China. The intervention avoids nostalgia and cynicism by foregrounding perceptual clarity, ecological integration, and cultural recontextualization. Instead, it offers a clear path forward for reimagining the built remnants of a prior urban paradigm. Outlets 8, Conghua Plans Elevations | © E Plus Design Floor Plan | © E Plus Design Floor Plan | © E Plus Design Floor Plan | © E Plus Design Floor Plan | © E Plus Design Sections | © E Plus Design Outlets 8, Conghua Image Gallery About E Plus Design E Plus Design is a multidisciplinary architecture studio based in Shenzhen, China, known for its innovative approaches to urban renewal, adaptive reuse, and large-scale public space transformations. The firm emphasizes minimal intervention strategies, spatial clarity, and contextual sensitivity, often working at the intersection of architecture, landscape, and urban design to create integrated environments that are both socially responsive and experientially rich. Credits and Additional Notes Chief Design Consultant: Liu Xiaodu Master Plan, Architecture, and Landscape Schemes: E Plus Design Lead Architects: Li Fu, Coco Zhou Project Managers (Architecture): Guo Sibo, Huang Haifeng Architectural Design Team: Wang Junli, Zhang Yan, Cai Yidie, Zhu Meng, Lin Zhaomei, Li Geng, Stephane Anil Mamode, Liu Shan, Zhou Yubo Central Plaza Design: URBANUS / LXD Studio Architect of Central Plaza: Liu Xiaodu Project Manager: Li An’hong Facade Design: Song Baolin, Li Minggang Lighting Design (Concept): Fang Yuhui Lighting Consultant: Han Du Associates Client: Guangzhou Outlets 8 Commercial Management Co., Ltd. Client Design Management Team: Yin Mingyue, Zhao Xiong Landscape Area: 29,100 m² Chief Landscape Architect: Gao Yan Project Manager (Landscape): Zhang Yufeng Landscape Design Team: Yu Xiaolei, Li Zhaozhan, Liu Chenghua Landscape Construction Drawings: E Plus Design Project Manager: Wang Bin Design Team: Wang Bin (Landscape Architecture). Huang Jinxiong (Greening Design). Li Gen (Water & Electricity Design) Structural Design Team: Wang Kaiming, Yang Helin, Wu Xingwei, Zhuang Dengfa Electrical Design Team: Sun Wei, Yang Ying Interior Design Concept Design: Shenzhen Juanshi Design Co., Ltd. Chief Interior Designer: Feng Feifan Project Manager: Liu Hongwei Design Team: Niu Jingxian, Shi Meitao Construction Drawings: Shenzhen Shiye Design Co., Ltd. Project Manager: Shen Kaizhen Design Team: Yao Yijian, Yang Hao, Liu Chen Wayfinding Design Studio: Hexi Brand Design Co., Ltd. Curtain Wall Design Firm: Positive Attitude Group (PAG)

As the chill of June sets in, it's the perfect time to trade spreadsheets for screenplays. Instead of navigating the labyrinth of endless options across Australia's six major streaming platforms, we've curated a selection of standout films and series to warm your winter nights.Table of ContentsNew in June on Foxtel and BingeTV litter pick: Mix Tape – 12 Jun : Former teenage sweethearts reconnect decades later through shared musical memories, reigniting past emotions and questions about their future.Movie litter pick: Wicked – 26 Jun : Explores the origin story of Elphaba and Glinda, two witches whose friendship and destinies shape the Land of Oz.What notable movies are coming to Binge?Rewriting Trump – 1 JunSmile 2 – 4 JunAnora – 11 JunWicked – 26 JunWhat notable series are coming to Binge?Great Canadian Bake Off S8 – 3 JunMr Loverman – 4 JunBelow Deck S12 – 10 JunMix Tape – 12 JunRevival – 13 JunLove It Or List It NZ – 25 JunEva Longoria: Searching For Mexico – 27 JunBack to topNew in June on NetflixTV litter pick: Squid Game S03 – 27 Jun : An animated journey through Pharrell Williams' life, showcasing his musical evolution and creative milestones.Movie litter pick: Piece By Piece – 7 Jun : Contestants engage in deadly games for a cash prize, revealing human nature's darkest facets.What notable movies are coming to Netflix?Power Moves with Shaquille O’Neal – 4 JunPiece By Piece – 7 JunTitan: The Oceangate Disaster – 11 JunThe Waterfront – 19 JunKPop Demon Hunters – 20 JunWhat notable series are coming to Netflix?Ginny and Georgia S03 – 5 JunThe Survivors – 6 JunFubar S02 – 12 JunThe Fairly Oddparents: A New Wish S02 – 12 JunDallas Cowboy Cheerleaders S02 – 18 JunThe Ultimatum: Queer Love S02 – 25 JunSquid Game S03 – 27 JunBack to topNew in June on Disney+TV litter pick: The Bear S04 – 26 Jun : Chef Carmy and his team navigate the pressures of the culinary world, striving for excellence amidst chaos.Movie litter pick: Ironheart – 25 Jun : Teen genius Riri Williams builds her own advanced suit of armor, stepping into the superhero world.What notable movies are coming to Disney+?Predator: Killer of Killers – 6 JunOcean with David Attenborough – 8 JunCall Her Alex – 10 JunIronheart – 25 JunWhat notable series are coming to Disney+?Call Her Alex – 10 JunThe Bear S04 – 26 JunBack to topNew in June on Apple TV+TV litter pick: Stick – 4 Jun : A sports dramedy following a former hockey star's return to coaching, blending humor with heartfelt moments.Movie litter pick: Echo Valley – 13 Jun : A suspenseful thriller where a mother confronts dark secrets to protect her daughter from a dangerous past.What notable movies are on Apple TV+?Echo Valley – 13 JunWhat notable series are coming to Apple TV+?Stick – 4 JunThe Buccaneers S02 – 18 JunSmoke – 27 JunSign up for a free 7–day trial of Apple TV+Back to topNew in June on Amazon Prime VideoTV litter pick: Babygirl – 3 Jun : A provocative drama exploring a young woman's journey through love, betrayal, and self-discovery.Movie litter pick: Deep Cover – 12 Jun : An undercover agent infiltrates a drug cartel, facing moral dilemmas and identity crises.What notable movies are coming to Prime Video?Babygirl – 3 JunNascar to Le Mans – 12 JunDeep Cover – 12 JunBeyond After – 24 JunWhat notable series are coming to Prime Video?We Were Liars S01 – 18 JunCountdown S01 – 25 JunMarry My Husband – 27 JunBack to topNew in June on StanTV litter pick: This City Is Ours – 4 Jun : A gritty crime drama delving into power struggles and corruption within a city's law enforcement.Movie litter pick: The Surfer – 15 Jun : A psychological thriller featuring a man confronting his past while facing surreal challenges on a remote beach.What notable movies are coming to Stan?The Surfer – 15 JunJoh: The Last King of Queensland – 22 JunWhat notable series are coming to Stan?This City Is Ours – 4 JunBlack Mafia Family S04 – 6 JunThe Gold S02 – 9 JunAlone S12 – 13 JunHal and Harper – 26 JunBack to top IGN is now on Flash, live and on demand. Stream the latest and trending news for video games, interviews, videos, and wikis. Check it out here. Adam Mathew is our Aussie streaming savant. He also games on YouTube.

Best of the rest Research roundup: 7 stories we almost missed Also: drumming chimpanzees, picking styles of two jazz greats, and an ancient underground city's soundscape Jennifer Ouellette – May 31, 2025 5:37 pm | 4 Time lapse photos show a new ping-pong-playing robot performing a top spin. Credit: David Nguyen, Kendrick Cancio and Sangbae Kim Time lapse photos show a new ping-pong-playing robot performing a top spin. Credit: David Nguyen, Kendrick Cancio and Sangbae Kim Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more It's a regrettable reality that there is never time to cover all the interesting scientific stories we come across each month. In the past, we've featured year-end roundups of cool science stories we (almost) missed. This year, we're experimenting with a monthly collection. May's list includes a nifty experiment to make a predicted effect of special relativity visible; a ping-pong playing robot that can return hits with 88 percent accuracy; and the discovery of the rare genetic mutation that makes orange cats orange, among other highlights. Special relativity made visible Credit: TU Wien Perhaps the most well-known feature of Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity is time dilation and length contraction. In 1959, two physicists predicted another feature of relativistic motion: an object moving near the speed of light should also appear to be rotated. It's not been possible to demonstrate this experimentally, however—until now. Physicists at the Vienna University of Technology figured out how to reproduce this rotational effect in the lab using laser pulses and precision cameras, according to a paper published in the journal Communications Physics. They found their inspiration in art, specifically an earlier collaboration with an artist named Enar de Dios Rodriguez, who collaborated with VUT and the University of Vienna on a project involving ultra-fast photography and slow light. For this latest research, they used objects shaped like a cube and a sphere and moved them around the lab while zapping them with ultrashort laser pulses, recording the flashes with a high-speed camera. Getting the timing just right effectively yields similar results to a light speed of 2 m/s. After photographing the objects many times using this method, the team then combined the still images into a single image. The results: the cube looked twisted and the sphere's North Pole was in a different location—a demonstration of the rotational effect predicted back in 1959. DOI: Communications Physics, 2025. 10.1038/s42005-025-02003-6  (About DOIs). Drumming chimpanzees A chimpanzee feeling the rhythm. Credit: Current Biology/Eleuteri et al., 2025. Chimpanzees are known to "drum" on the roots of trees as a means of communication, often combining that action with what are known as "pant-hoot" vocalizations (see above video). Scientists have found that the chimps' drumming exhibits key elements of musical rhythm much like humans, according to  a paper published in the journal Current Biology—specifically non-random timing and isochrony. And chimps from different geographical regions have different drumming rhythms. Back in 2022, the same team observed that individual chimps had unique styles of "buttress drumming," which served as a kind of communication, letting others in the same group know their identity, location, and activity. This time around they wanted to know if this was also true of chimps living in different groups and whether their drumming was rhythmic in nature. So they collected video footage of the drumming behavior among 11 chimpanzee communities across six populations in East Africa (Uganda) and West Africa (Ivory Coast), amounting to 371 drumming bouts. Their analysis of the drum patterns confirmed their hypothesis. The western chimps drummed in regularly spaced hits, used faster tempos, and started drumming earlier during their pant-hoot vocalizations. Eastern chimps would alternate between shorter and longer spaced hits. Since this kind of rhythmic percussion is one of the earliest evolved forms of human musical expression and is ubiquitous across cultures, findings such as this could shed light on how our love of rhythm evolved. DOI: Current Biology, 2025. 10.1016/j.cub.2025.04.019  (About DOIs). Distinctive styles of two jazz greats Jazz lovers likely need no introduction to Joe Pass and Wes Montgomery, 20th century guitarists who influenced generations of jazz musicians with their innovative techniques. Montgomery, for instance, didn't use a pick, preferring to pluck the strings with his thumb—a method he developed because he practiced at night after working all day as a machinist and didn't want to wake his children or neighbors. Pass developed his own range of picking techniques, including fingerpicking, hybrid picking, and "flat picking." Chirag Gokani and Preston Wilson, both with Applied Research Laboratories and the University of Texas, Austin, greatly admired both Pass and Montgomery and decided to explore the underlying the acoustics of their distinctive playing, modeling the interactions of the thumb, fingers, and pick with a guitar string. They described their research during a meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in New Orleans, LA. Among their findings: Montgomery achieved his warm tone by playing closer to the bridge and mostly plucking at the string. Pass's rich tone arose from a combination of using a pick and playing closer to the guitar neck. There were also differences in how much a thumb, finger, and pick slip off the string:  use of the thumb (Montgomery) produced more of a "pluck" compared to the pick (Pass), which produced more of a "strike." Gokani and Wilson think their model could be used to synthesize digital guitars with a more realistic sound, as well as helping guitarists better emulate Pass and Montgomery. Sounds of an ancient underground city Credit: Sezin Nas Turkey is home to the underground city Derinkuyu, originally carved out inside soft volcanic rock around the 8th century BCE. It was later expanded to include four main ventilation channels (and some 50,000 smaller shafts) serving seven levels, which could be closed off from the inside with a large rolling stone. The city could hold up to 20,000 people and it  was connected to another underground city, Kaymakli, via tunnels. Derinkuyu helped protect Arab Muslims during the Arab-Byzantine wars, served as a refuge from the Ottomans in the 14th century, and as a haven for Armenians escaping persecution in the early 20th century, among other functions. The tunnels were rediscovered in the 1960s and about half of the city has been open to visitors since 2016. The site is naturally of great archaeological interest, but there has been little to no research on the acoustics of the site, particularly the ventilation channels—one of Derinkuyu's most unique features, according to Sezin Nas, an architectural acoustician at Istanbul Galata University in Turkey.  She gave a talk at a meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in New Orleans, LA, about her work on the site's acoustic environment. Nas analyzed a church, a living area, and a kitchen, measuring sound sources and reverberation patterns, among other factors, to create a 3D virtual soundscape. The hope is that a better understanding of this aspect of Derinkuyu could improve the design of future underground urban spaces—as well as one day using her virtual soundscape to enable visitors to experience the sounds of the city themselves. MIT's latest ping-pong robot Robots playing ping-pong have been a thing since the 1980s, of particular interest to scientists because it requires the robot to combine the slow, precise ability to grasp and pick up objects with dynamic, adaptable locomotion. Such robots need high-speed machine vision, fast motors and actuators, precise control, and the ability to make accurate predictions in real time, not to mention being able to develop a game strategy. More recent designs use AI techniques to allow the robots to "learn" from prior data to improve their performance. MIT researchers have built their own version of a ping-pong playing robot, incorporating a lightweight design and the ability to precisely return shots. They built on prior work developing the Humanoid, a small bipedal two-armed robot—specifically, modifying the Humanoid's arm by adding an extra degree of freedom to the wrist so the robot could control a ping-pong paddle. They tested their robot by mounting it on a ping-pong table and lobbing 150 balls at it from the other side of the table, capturing the action with high-speed cameras. The new bot can execute three different swing types (loop, drive, and chip) and during the trial runs it returned the ball with impressive accuracy across all three types: 88.4 percent, 89.2 percent, and 87.5 percent, respectively. Subsequent tweaks to theirrystem brought the robot's strike speed up to 19 meters per second (about 42 MPH), close to the 12 to 25 meters per second of advanced human players. The addition of control algorithms gave the robot the ability to aim. The robot still has limited mobility and reach because it has to be fixed to the ping-pong table but the MIT researchers plan to rig it to a gantry or wheeled platform in the future to address that shortcoming. Why orange cats are orange Credit: Astropulse/CC BY-SA 3.0 Cat lovers know orange cats are special for more than their unique coloring, but that's the quality that has intrigued scientists for almost a century. Sure, lots of animals have orange, ginger, or yellow hues, like tigers, orangutans, and golden retrievers. But in domestic cats that color is specifically linked to sex. Almost all orange cats are male. Scientists have now identified the genetic mutation responsible and it appears to be unique to cats, according to a paper published in the journal Current Biology. Prior work had narrowed down the region on the X chromosome most likely to contain the relevant mutation. The scientists knew that females usually have just one copy of the mutation and in that case have tortoiseshell (partially orange) coloring, although in rare cases, a female cat will be orange if both X chromosomes have the mutation. Over the last five to ten years, there has been an explosion in genome resources (including complete sequenced genomes) for cats which greatly aided the team's research, along with taking additional DNA samples from cats at spay and neuter clinics. From an initial pool of 51 candidate variants, the scientists narrowed it down to three genes, only one of which was likely to play any role in gene regulation: Arhgap36. It wasn't known to play any role in pigment cells in humans, mice, or non-orange cats. But orange cats are special; their mutation (sex-linked orange) turns on Arhgap36 expression in pigment cells (and only pigment cells), thereby interfering with the molecular pathway that controls coat color in other orange-shaded mammals. The scientists suggest that this is an example of how genes can acquire new functions, thereby enabling species to better adapt and evolve. DOI: Current Biology, 2025. 10.1016/j.cub.2025.03.075  (About DOIs). Not a Roman "massacre" after all Credit: Martin Smith In 1936, archaeologists excavating the Iron Age hill fort Maiden Castle in the UK unearthed dozens of human skeletons, all showing signs of lethal injuries to the head and upper body—likely inflicted with weaponry. At the time, this was interpreted as evidence of a pitched battle between the Britons of the local Durotriges tribe and invading Romans. The Romans slaughtered the native inhabitants, thereby bringing a sudden violent end to the Iron Age. At least that's the popular narrative that has prevailed ever since in countless popular articles, books, and documentaries. But a paper published in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology calls that narrative into question. Archaeologists at Bournemouth University have re-analyzed those burials, incorporating radiocarbon dating into their efforts. They concluded that those individuals didn't die in a single brutal battle. Rather, it was Britons killing other Britons over multiple generations between the first century BCE and the first century CE—most likely in periodic localized outbursts of violence in the lead-up to the Roman conquest of Britain. It's possible there are still many human remains waiting to be discovered at the site, which could shed further light on what happened at Maiden Castle. DOI: Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 2025. 10.1111/ojoa.12324  (About DOIs). Jennifer Ouellette Senior Writer Jennifer Ouellette Senior Writer Jennifer is a senior writer at Ars Technica with a particular focus on where science meets culture, covering everything from physics and related interdisciplinary topics to her favorite films and TV series. Jennifer lives in Baltimore with her spouse, physicist Sean M. Carroll, and their two cats, Ariel and Caliban. 4 Comments

I've wanted to rewatch the sci-fi thriller Strange Days for a long time, but I kept forgetting because, honestly, I couldn't remember the title. I finally came across it on Hulu and checked it out, and I can't stop thinking about it.Though Strange Days was released back in 1995, it looks and feels like it could've come out yesterday. It's one of those rare old movies that imagined the technology of virtual reality, or VR, without turning it into a gimmick. Strange Days takes place in 1999 Los Angeles during the last 48 hours of the millennium. Lenny Nero, played by Ralph Fiennes, is a former cop who now peddles an illegal virtual reality experience called Playback. Nero's friend and bodyguard, Mace (Angela Basset), tries to keep him rooted in reality and away from trouble. Together, they work to track down a brutal rapist and murderer -- a man who uses VR Playback discs to record his crimes from his own point of view.The movie wasted no time dropping me into its jarring setting: The opening scene is an armed robbery filmed in first-person perspective, with the robber running from cops and jumping from one rooftop to another. A couple of scenes later, I saw tanks on the streets of LA and heard radio callers declaring that the world would end at the stroke of midnight on Jan. 1, 2000. Strange Days reminds me of the best Black Mirror episodes -- both deeply disturbing and uncomfortably close to home. Director Kathryn Bigelow was influenced by the 1992 LA riots and incorporated those elements of racial tension and police violence into her work. The result is a movie that's sometimes difficult to watch but impossible to look away from. At the same time, Strange Days is grounded by emotion. Nero (Fiennes) spends a good portion of the movie reliving memories of his failed relationship with the singer Faith (played by actress-turned-rocker Juliette Lewis). Lying in bed while he plays back footage of happier days, he can trick himself into believing he's roller skating with Faith again -- until the disc stops spinning and he opens his eyes, back in the lonely present day."This is not 'like TV only better,'" says Nero, as he introduces the VR Playback tech to one of his clients. "This is life."But Bassett's character, Mace, believes otherwise, at one point confronting Nero over his attachment to his "used emotions." "This is your life!" says Mace. "Right here! Right now! It's real time, you hear me? Real time, time to get real, not Playback!" As I watched Strange Days in 2025, I couldn't help thinking of the virtual reality devices that exist today. VR headsets like the Meta Quest 3 and Google's upcoming AR glasses are bringing us closer than ever to the Playback tech in the film. And the immersive spatial videos for the Apple Vision Pro can make you feel like you're really reliving a three-dimensional recorded memory. As I considered the similarities between our current tech and Strange Days' Playback discs, I wondered if the future wants to be haunted by the past.Despite being 30 years old, Strange Days' special effects hold up incredibly well. Where other 1995 sci-fi flicks like Hackers and Johnny Mnemonic experimented with early computer-generated imagery, Strange Days went for a more practical approach: Characters shift in and out of the Playback footage with a simple analog distortion effect, just like you'd find while watching home videos on VHS tapes. The point-of-view shots were carefully choreographed, and the resulting footage looks like you're viewing it through the recorder's eyes.Strange Days also features standout musical acts. Juliette Lewis, in character as Faith, belts out two PJ Harvey tracks in on-screen performances that recall the best of '90s grunge. Rapper Jeriko One (played by Glenn Plummer) delivers biting social commentary in his music video. And contemporary artists Aphex Twin, Deee-Lite and Skunk Anansie perform during the movie's bombastic final act, a New Year's Eve rave in downtown LA. (It was a real-life concert with 10,000 attendees.)Strange Days is both a thrilling action movie and a mind-bending exploration of technology and memory. I'm surprised it was a box-office flop in 1995, and I wish it had received the recognition it deserved then. Still, I'm glad this sci-fi masterpiece is available to stream today. Though Strange Days isn't the easiest title to remember, the movie itself is unforgettable.

The turing test in reverse Real TikTokers are pretending to be Veo 3 AI creations for fun, attention From music videos to "Are you a prompt?" stunts, "real" videos are presenting as AI Kyle Orland – May 31, 2025 7:08 am | 13 Of course I'm an AI creation! Why would you even doubt it? Credit: Getty Images Of course I'm an AI creation! Why would you even doubt it? Credit: Getty Images Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more Since Google released its Veo 3 AI model last week, social media users have been having fun with its ability to quickly generate highly realistic eight-second clips complete with sound and lip-synced dialogue. TikTok's algorithm has been serving me plenty of Veo-generated videos featuring impossible challenges, fake news reports, and even surreal short narrative films, to name just a few popular archetypes. However, among all the AI-generated video experiments spreading around, I've also noticed a surprising counter-trend on my TikTok feed. Amid all the videos of Veo-generated avatars pretending to be real people, there are now also a bunch of videos of real people pretending to be Veo-generated avatars. “This has to be real. There’s no way it's AI.” I stumbled on this trend when the TikTok algorithm fed me this video topped with the extra-large caption "Google VEO 3 THIS IS 100% AI." As I watched and listened to the purported AI-generated band that appeared to be playing in the crowded corner of someone's living room, I read the caption containing the supposed prompt that had generated the clip: "a band of brothers with beards playing rock music in 6/8 with an accordion." @kongosmusicWe are so cooked. This took 3 mins to generate. Simple prompt: “a band of brothers playing rock music in 6/8 with an accordion”♬ original sound - KONGOS After a few seconds of taking those captions at face value, something started to feel a little off. After a few more seconds, I finally noticed the video was posted by Kongos, an indie band that you might recognize from their minor 2012 hit "Come With Me Now." And after a little digging, I discovered the band in the video was actually just Kongos, and the tune was a 9-year-old song that the band had dressed up as an AI creation to get attention. Here's the sad thing: It worked! Without the "Look what Veo 3 did!" hook, I might have quickly scrolled by this video before I took the time to listen to the (pretty good!) song. The novel AI angle made me stop just long enough to pay attention to a Kongos song for the first time in over a decade. Kongos isn't the only musical act trying to grab attention by claiming their real performances are AI creations. Darden Bela posted that Veo 3 had "created a realistic AI music video" over a clip from what is actually a 2-year-old music video with some unremarkable special effects. Rapper GameBoi Pat dressed up an 11-month-old song with a new TikTok clip captioned "Google's Veo 3 created a realistic sounding rapper... This has to be real. There's no way it's AI" (that last part is true, at least). I could go on, but you get the idea. @gameboi_pat This has got to be real. There’s no way it’s AI 😩 #google #veo3 #googleveo3 #AI #prompts #areweprompts? ♬ original sound - GameBoi_pat I know it's tough to get noticed on TikTok, and that creators will go to great lengths to gain attention from the fickle algorithm. Still, there's something more than a little off-putting about flesh-and-blood musicians pretending to be AI creations just to make social media users pause their scrolling for a few extra seconds before they catch on to the joke (or don't, based on some of the comments). The whole thing evokes last year's stunt where a couple of podcast hosts released a posthumous "AI-generated" George Carlin routine before admitting that it had been written by a human after legal threats started flying. As an attention-grabbing stunt, the conceit still works. You want AI-generated content? I can pretend to be that! Are we just prompts? Some of the most existentially troubling Veo-generated videos floating around TikTok these days center around a gag known as "the prompt theory." These clips focus on various AI-generated people reacting to the idea that they are "just prompts" with various levels of skepticism, fear, or even conspiratorial paranoia. On the other side of that gag, some humans are making joke videos playing off the idea that they're merely prompts. RedondoKid used the conceit in a basketball trick shot video, saying "of course I'm going to make this. This is AI, you put that I'm going to make this in the prompt." User thisisamurica thanked his faux prompters for putting him in "a world with such delicious food" before theatrically choking on a forkful of meat. And comedian Drake Cummings developed TikTok skits pretending that it was actually AI video prompts forcing him to indulge in vices like shots of alcohol or online gambling ("Goolgle’s [sic] New A.I. Veo 3 is at it again!! When will the prompts end?!" Cummings jokes in the caption). @justdrakenaround Goolgle’s New A.I. Veo 3 is at it again!! When will the prompts end?! #veo3 #google #ai #aivideo #skit ♬ original sound - Drake Cummings Beyond the obvious jokes, though, I've also seen a growing trend of TikTok creators approaching friends or strangers and asking them to react to the idea that "we're all just prompts." The reactions run the gamut from "get the fuck away from me" to "I blame that [prompter], I now have to pay taxes" to solipsistic philosophical musings from convenience store employees. I'm loath to call this a full-blown TikTok trend based on a few stray examples. Still, these attempts to exploit the confusion between real and AI-generated video are interesting to see. As one commenter on an "Are you a prompt?" ambush video put it: "New trend: Do normal videos and write 'Google Veo 3' on top of the video." Which one is real? The best Veo-related TikTok engagement hack I've stumbled on so far, though, might be the videos that show multiple short clips and ask the viewer to decide which are real and which are fake. One video I stumbled on shows an increasing number of "Veo 3 Goth Girls" across four clips, challenging in the caption that "one of these videos is real... can you guess which one?" In another example, two similar sets of kids are shown hanging out in cars while the caption asks, "Are you able to identify which scene is real and which one is from veo3?" @spongibobbu2 One of these videos is real… can you guess which one? #veo3 ♬ original sound - Jett After watching both of these videos on loop a few times, I'm relatively (but not entirely) convinced that every single clip in them is a Veo creation. The fact that I watched these videos multiple times shows how effective the "Real or Veo" challenge framing is at grabbing my attention. Additionally, I'm still not 100 percent confident in my assessments, which is a testament to just how good Google's new model is at creating convincing videos. There are still some telltale signs for distinguishing a real video from a Veo creation, though. For one, Veo clips are still limited to just eight seconds, so any video that runs longer (without an apparent change in camera angle) is almost certainly not generated by Google's AI. Looking back at a creator's other videos can also provide some clues—if the same person was appearing in "normal" videos two weeks ago, it's unlikely they would be appearing in Veo creations suddenly. There's also a subtle but distinctive style to most Veo creations that can distinguish them from the kind of candid handheld smartphone videos that usually fill TikTok. The lighting in a Veo video tends to be too bright, the camera movements a bit too smooth, and the edges of people and objects a little too polished. After you watch enough "genuine" Veo creations, you can start to pick out the patterns. Regardless, TikTokers trying to pass off real videos as fakes—even as a joke or engagement hack—is a recognition that video sites are now deep in the "deep doubt" era, where you have to be extra skeptical of even legitimate-looking video footage. And the mere existence of convincing AI fakes makes it easier than ever to claim real events captured on video didn't really happen, a problem that political scientists call the liar's dividend. We saw this when then-candidate Trump accused Democratic nominee Kamala Harris of "A.I.'d" crowds in real photos of her Detroit airport rally. For now, TikTokers of all stripes are having fun playing with that idea to gain social media attention. In the long term, though, the implications for discerning truth from reality are more troubling. Kyle Orland Senior Gaming Editor Kyle Orland Senior Gaming Editor Kyle Orland has been the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica since 2012, writing primarily about the business, tech, and culture behind video games. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He once wrote a whole book about Minesweeper. 13 Comments