A newly described creature from the Cambrian period is putting a bizarre twist on what we thought we knew about early animal evolution. Meet Mosura fentoni—a three-eyed, clawed, and flappy-limbed predator about the size of your finger, recently identified from Canada’s famed Burgess Shale. The alien-looking animal is part of a group called radiodonts, a now-extinct lineage of arthropods best known for Anomalocaris, a three-foot-long (one-meter-long) sea terror with spiny limbs and a circular mouth full of teeth. Like its cousins, Mosura had a similar feeding disk and paddle-like limbs for swimming. But it also had a strange surprise out back: a tail-like segment of 16 tightly packed body sections, each lined with gills. The Royal Society Open Science published the team’s description of the creature today. “As much as we learn about radiodonts, there always seems to be something new and surprising about this group around the corner,” said study lead author Joe Moysiuk, curator at the Manitoba Museum, in an email to Gizmodo. “The ‘abdomen’ in Mosura is different in that its segments are small and they have only tiny flaps that would have been basically useless for propulsion.” The researchers aren’t totally sure why Mosura needed this extra breathing real estate, but it could be related to how or where it lived—maybe hanging out in low-oxygen environments in the lively Cambrian seas, or leading an especially active lifestyle. A life reconstruction of the radiodont. Illustration: Art by Danielle Dufault, © ROM Its unique shape, with broad swimming flaps and a slender abdomen, earned it the nickname “sea-moth” from the researchers—hence the name Mosura, a nod to the Japanese kaiju Mothra. But despite its nickname, Mosura is only distantly related to moths. Mosura is part of a much more ancient lineage of arthropods—and though the radiodonts are long-gone, their remarkable preservation in the Burgess Shale is routinely yielding new species to science. Beyond its sci-fi looks, Mosura is also offering rare glimpses of internal anatomy from half a billion years ago. Some of the 61 fossils of the creature studied show preserved nerve tissue, eye structures, a digestive tract, and even reflective patches representing an open circulatory system—essentially a heart pumping blood into internal cavities called lacunae. Those same features, previously mysterious in other fossils, are evident in the team’s Mosura specimens. The fossils, mostly collected by the Royal Ontario Museum over the last 50 years, came from Yoho and Kootenay National Parks—part of the Burgess Shale region. The region was part of the ancient seafloor and is known for its exceptional preservation of the soft-bodied organisms that called the seafloor home. Moysiuk has recently unearthed a couple of other creatures from the Cambrian Explosion, including Titanokorys gainesi in 2021 and Cambroraster falcatus, named for the Millennium Falcon, in 2019. “So many science fiction creatures have been inspired by living organisms,” Moysiuk said. “It seems only natural that scientists should take some inspiration in return.” “There are loads of other possible inspirations for species names, but I do think there’s a lot of potential with the ‘Tremors’ franchise,” Moysiuk added. “The giant worms in that series are supposed to be relicts of the Precambrian, and although that makes no sense scientifically, it could make for a fun reference.” You heard it here first: As long as the creatures getting discovered keep looking as alien as Moysiuk’s recent finds, no science fiction franchise is safe from becoming scientific nomenclature.

re-start Microsoft shares its process (and discarded ideas) for redone Windows 11 Start menu Updated Start menu design is currently being tested in Windows Insider previews. Andrew Cunningham – May 13, 2025 4:44 pm | 91 The updated Start menu that Microsoft is currently testing in Windows 11. Credit: Microsoft The updated Start menu that Microsoft is currently testing in Windows 11. Credit: Microsoft Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more Microsoft put a lot of focus on Windows 11's design when it released the operating system in 2021, making a clean break with the design language of Windows 10 (which had, itself, simply tweaked and adapted Windows 8's design language from 2012). Since then, Microsoft has continued to modify the software's design in bits and pieces, both for individual apps and for foundational UI elements like the Taskbar, system tray, and Windows Explorer. Microsoft is currently testing a redesigned version of the Windows 11 Start menu, one that reuses most of the familiar elements from the current design but reorganizes them and gives users a few additional customization options. On its Microsoft Design blog today, the company walked through the new design and showed some of the ideas that were tried and discarded in the process. This discarded Start menu design toyed with an almost Windows XP-ish left-hand sidebar, among other elements. Microsoft This discarded Start menu design toyed with an almost Windows XP-ish left-hand sidebar, among other elements. Microsoft Some designs brings to mind the full-screen Start experience of Windows 8. Microsoft Some designs brings to mind the full-screen Start experience of Windows 8. Microsoft Another big design with acres of icons and more space dedicated to non-app-icons. Microsoft Another big design with acres of icons and more space dedicated to non-app-icons. Microsoft Some designs brings to mind the full-screen Start experience of Windows 8. Microsoft Another big design with acres of icons and more space dedicated to non-app-icons. Microsoft This design included thumbnail previews for recently opened files. Microsoft Another discarded Start menu design. Microsoft Microsoft says it tested its menu designs with "over 300 Windows 11 fans" in unmoderated studies, "and dozens more" in "live co-creation calls." These testers' behavior and reactions informed what Microsoft kept and what it discarded. Many of the discarded menu ideas include larger previews for recently opened files, more space given to calendar reminders, and recommended "For You" content areas; one has a "create" button that would presumably activate some generative AI feature. Looking at the discarded designs, it's easier to appreciate that Microsoft went with a somewhat more restrained redesign of the Start menu that remixes existing elements rather than dramatically reimagining it. Microsoft has also tweaked the side menu that's available when you have a phone paired to your PC, making it toggleable via a button in the upper-right corner. That area is used to display recent texts and calls and other phone notifications, recent contacts, and battery information, among a couple other things. Microsoft's team wanted to make sure the new menu "felt like it belonged on both a [10.5-inch] Surface Go and a 49-inch ultrawide," a nod to the variety of hardware Microsoft needs to consider when making any design changes to Windows. The menu the team landed on is essentially what's been visible in Windows Insider Preview builds for a month or so now: two rows of pinned icons, a "Recommended" section with recently installed apps, recently opened files, a (sigh) Windows Store apps that Microsoft thinks you should try, and a few different ways to access all the apps on your PC. By default, these will be arranged by category, though you can also view a hierarchical alphabetized list like you can in the current Start menu; the big difference is that this view is at the top level of the Start menu in the new version, rather than being tucked away behind a button. For more on the history of the Start menu from its inception in the early 90s through the release of Windows 10, we've collected tons of screenshots and other reminiscences here. Andrew Cunningham Senior Technology Reporter Andrew Cunningham Senior Technology Reporter Andrew is a Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica, with a focus on consumer tech including computer hardware and in-depth reviews of operating systems like Windows and macOS. Andrew lives in Philadelphia and co-hosts a weekly book podcast called Overdue. 91 Comments

News Avatar: Braving the Elements Podcast Teases Korra Revelations in Season 4 Trailer Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender rewatch podcast is set to provide a behind the scenes look at The Legend of Korra. By Alec Bojalad | May 13, 2025 | | Photo: Nickelodeon Through three seasons and well over 100 episodes, Avatar: The Last Airbender companion podcast Avatar: Braving the Elements has faithfully recapped episodes of and expanded upon the lore for the all-time classic Nickelodeon animated series. Since the show finished covering The Last Airbender‘s third and final season last October, however, it’s been radio (or podcast) silent. After all, three seasons of Avatar: The Last Airbender, the TV show, means three seasons of Avatar: Braving the Elements, the podcast, right? Well, in the immortal words of Lee Corso: not so fast, my friend! Nickelodeon has now announced a May 20 release date for Avatar: Braving the Elements season 4, which will begin to delve into Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s first sequel Avatar: The Legend of Korra. Of course, Avatar: Braving the Elements moving on to Avatar: The Legend of Korra was always a part of the podcast’s long-term plan, as evidenced by the fact that Korra herself, Janet Varney, serves as the show’s co-host alongside Dante Basco. What fans couldn’t have fully anticipated though, is the lineup of Avatar stars, fans, and other luminaries that make up the guest list of this new season. Check them out below in the first trailer for Avatar: Braving the Elements season 4. The season’s first episode will feature Avatar: The Last Airbender creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko as they set the table for the four “books” of Korra to come. After that, things go in some pretty unexpected directions with Minnesota Twins pitcher Pablo López (who is boasting an impressive 2.18 Earned Run Average at press time) joining the discussion. Other guests include: Zach Tyler Eisen (voice of Aang), Steve Blum (voice of Amon), Mindy Sterling (voiced of Lin Beifong), Mick Foley (voice of the Boulder), Seychelle Gabriel (voice of Asami), Jeremy Zuckerman (music composer), Joaquim Dos Santos (director), Levon Hawke (Blink Twice, Avatarverse superfan), Maya Hawke (Stranger Things, Avatarverse superfan), and of course: the legendary cabbage merchant James Sie. While Varney should undoubtedly have a lot of compelling behind-the-scenes tidbits to share this time around, don’t sleep on Basco’s ability to crack the Korra code. The Zuko voice actor didn’t return for the sequel (with a more age-appropriate Bruce Davison taking over the role) and as such has not seen The Legend of Korra. It looks like the show will put that virginal status to good use, breaking out a “FORESHADOW REPORT” every time Basco stumbles upon something prophetic. Avatar: Braving the Elements season 4 premieres May 20 and will rollout weekly with video episodes on YouTube and audio episodes wherever podcasts are available. There is no word on how long this season will run but before you know it, Braving the Elements will be ready for its Seven Havens’ era.

Apple (Nasdaq:AAPL) has spent decades making sure everyone can use its hardware, which is why the company regularly celebrates Global Accessibility Awareness Day with news about upcoming improvements in its operating systems. This year’s collection is particularly compelling, including a tool to let you read real-time Live Captions of conversations taking place around you using your Apple Watch, enabling people with poor hearing to engage more actively during meetings. The company announces a raft of new accessibility features in the weeks prior to WWDC each year. This year is a bit of a feature jamboree, with a host of new accessibility tools promised in Apple’s devices when iOS 19 and macOS 16 ship later this year. The company has invested in accessibility for 40 years, ever since 1985. What Apple said “At Apple, accessibility is part of our DNA,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook. “Making technology for everyone is a priority for all of us, and we’re proud of the innovations we’re sharing this year. That includes tools to help people access crucial information, explore the world around them, and do what they love.” “Building on 40 years of accessibility innovation at Apple, we are dedicated to pushing forward with new accessibility features for all of our products,” said Sarah Herrlinger, Apple’s senior director of Global Accessibility Policy and Initiatives.  Accessibility Nutrition Labels on the App Store The big new addition this year, Accessibility Nutrition Labels, are similar to the Privacy Nutrition Labels Apple introduced some years ago but focused on accessibility. These labels will show you which of Apple’s accessibility tools (including Voice Over, Reduced Motion, and many more) the app supports. The idea is to help consumers identify those apps most suitable for their needs. “These labels will give people with disabilities a new way to easily make more informed decisions and make purchases with a new level of confidence,” said Eric Bridges, the American Foundation for the Blind’s president and CEO. Apple A Mac surprise In a really interesting use of iPhone Continuity Camera, Apple is bringing the Magnifier app to the Mac. Magnifier has been available on iPhones since 2016; it helps users zoom in, read text, and detect nearby objects. Now it works with the Mac using Continuity Camera to take images from the iPhone or using an attached USB camera. You might use this feature to read a whiteboard during a presentation, or to read documents using Desk View. The tool lets you adjust brightness, contrast, color filters, and even perspective to make text and images easier to see. New tool: Accessibility Reader The all-new Accessibility Reader tool takes text from the world around you, digitizes it and makes it available to you in a legible on-screen format. It’s a new system-wide reading mode designed to make text easier to read for users with a wide range of disabilities, such as dyslexia or low vision, and it can speak the content. You can launch Accessibility Reader from any app, and you’ll find it in the Magnifier app. Apple Live Captions on Apple Watch Given we recently learned Pope Leo XIV wears an Apple Watch, it’s not inconceivable he might use Live Captions with watchOS 11. It’s based on Live Listen on your iPhone, which uses your microphone to stream conversation directly to AirPods and Made for iPhone hearing aids. Live Listen controls will now be available on an Apple Watch when a session is active on iPhone, meaning users can view Live Captions on their watch of what their iPhone hears while listening along to the audio. You can also start and stop Live Listen sessions or jump back in a session to pick up on something you missed. The idea here is that you’ll be able to place your iPhone near the person/people you need to listen to and then hear, read, and control the Live Listen session from across the room. This will be invaluable for students with hearing problems, or anyone with a memory that favors written words above spoken speech.  They are particularly invaluable when used with Assistive Touch. Braille Access Apple’s new tools for braille turn any Apple device into a full-featured braille note taker. There’s a built-in app launcher, which makes it easy to open any app by typing with Braille Screen Input or a connected braille device. Once you’ve opened it, you’ll be able to take notes in braille and perform calculations using Nemeth Braille, a braille code often used in classrooms for maths and science. Braille Access will also open Braille Ready Format (BRF) files, unlocking books and files previously created on a braille note-taking device. But perhaps the most interesting feature is that, thanks to Live Captions, it’s possible to transcribe conversations in real time directly on braille displays. Brain Control This will become more important in down the road. For users with severe mobility disabilities, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS will add a new protocol to support Switch Control for Brain Computer Interfaces (BCIs), an emerging technology that allows users to control their device without physical movement. The neural link is getting closer. Apple Vision Pro There’s some interesting accessibility features coming for visionOS. These include the capacity to magnify everything in view, including surroundings. For VoiceOver users, Live Recognition uses on-device machine learning to describe surroundings, find objects, read documents, and more. There is one more thing, ostensibly only available to accessibility developers: a new API will enable approved apps to access the main camera to provide live, person-to-person assistance for visual interpretation in apps like Be My Eyes, giving users more ways to understand their surroundings hands-free. My take? The digitization of daily life is accelerating. Many more features There are more than a dozen improved accessibility features on the way. For example, the setup period for Personal Voice has been reduced to just one minute, rather than overnight; Sound Recognition can also now alert users when their name is called; and Voice Control introduces a new programming mode in Xcode. There are lots of smaller improvements, including a new way to temporarily share your own accessibility settings with another device. Apple Services Apple is also celebrating Global Accessibility Awareness day with a range of initiatives across the company. Apple stores will offer displays and training on accessibility features while Apple TV+ shares a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the new Apple Original film Deaf President Now!, which premieres on Apple TV+ May 16. Apple Books, Apple Podcasts, Apple TV, and Apple News will spotlight stories of people with disabilities and those who are working to make the world more accessible for everyone. The company has also published new how to videos for some of its existing features on YouTube. You can follow me on social media! Join me on BlueSky,  LinkedIn, and Mastodon.

Mosura fentoni belongs to an extinct group of early arthropods. CREDIT: Art by Danielle Dufault, © ROM Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Despite centuries of digging, paleontologists are still unearthing new flora and fauna preserved for millennia in rocks. Case in point, the newly discovered Mosura fentoni. This 506-million-year-old predator was found in Canada’s Burgess Shale and packed a punch for something only about the size of a human index finger. The findings are detailed in a study published May 13 in the journal Royal Society Open Science. Meet Mosura From the fossils, paleontologists believe that Mosura fentoni had three eyes, spiny jointed claws, a circular mouth lined with teeth, and a body equipped with swimming flaps along its sides. It was likely part of an extinct group of small early arthropods called radiodonts. The three-feet-long predator Anomalocaris canadensis was also a radiodont that shared the water with Mosura. However, Mosura has something that has not been seen in other radiodont. It has an abdomen-like body region made up of several segments at its back–similar to living insects and other arthropods.  Life reconstruction of Mosura fentoni. CREDIT: Art by Danielle Dufault, © ROM. “Mosura has 16 tightly packed segments lined with gills at the rear end of its body,” Joe Moysiuk, a study co-author and Curator of Palaeontology and Geology at the Manitoba Museum, said in a statement. “This is a neat example of evolutionary convergence with modern groups, like horseshoe crabs, woodlice, and insects, which share a batch of segments bearing respiratory organs at the rear of the body.” The team is not sure why Mosura has this intriguing adaptation, but it could be related to particular habitat preference or behavioral characteristics that required more efficient respiration. The sea moth Field collectors nicknamed Mosura the “sea-moth” due to the board swimming flaps located near its midsection and narrow abdomen. The moth-like feature inspired its scientific name, which references the fictional Japanese kaiju also known as Mothra. However, it is only distantly related to real moths. Mosura sits on a much deeper branch in the arthropod evolutionary tree. “Radiodonts were the first group of arthropods to branch out in the evolutionary tree, so they provide key insight into ancestral traits for the entire group,” Jean-Bernard Caron, a study coauthor and Curator of Invertebrate Palaeontology at the Royal Ontario Museum, said in a statement. “The new species emphasizes that these early arthropods were already surprisingly diverse and were adapting in a comparable way to their distant modern relatives.” Fossil specimen of Mosura fentoni, ROMIP 67520 from the Marble Canyon area. The head is at the left and the dark, three-dimensional bulges represent minerals replacing the gills and circulatory lacunae. CREDIT: Photo by Jean-Bernard Caron © ROM Additionally, several Mosura fossils show details of internal anatomy seen in later arthropods, including some elements of the nervous system, circulatory system, and digestive tract. “Very few fossil sites in the world offer this level of insight into soft internal anatomy. We can see traces representing bundles of nerves in the eyes that would have been involved in image processing, just like in living arthropods. The details are astounding,” said Caron.  Open blood Instead of having internal arteries and veins to transfer blood the way that most living mammals do, Mosura had an open circulatory system. Its heart pumped blood into large internal body cavities called lacunae. In some of the fossils, the lacunae are preserved as reflective patches that fill the body and extend into the swimming flaps. “The well-preserved lacunae of the circulatory system in Mosura help us to interpret similar, but less clear features that we’ve seen before in other fossils. Their identity has been controversial,” said Moysiuk. “It turns out that preservation of these structures is widespread, confirming the ancient origin of this type of circulatory system.” Anatomical diagram of Mosura fentoni, showing preserved details of the nervous system in purple, the digestive system in green, and the circulatory system in orange. CREDIT: Art by Danielle Dufault © ROM All but one of the 61 Mosura fossils in this study were collected by the Royal Ontario Museum between 1975 and 2022, highlighting the importance of these types of animal archives.  “Museum collections, old and new, are a bottomless treasure trove of information about the past. If you think you’ve seen it all before, you just need to open up a museum drawer,” said Moysiuk.

Long-simmering tension between Silicon Valley and the press that covers it is surfacing during the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust trial against Meta. During a heated cross-examination of the FTC’s key economic expert, Scott Hemphill, Meta’s lead attorney, Mark Hansen, noted that Hemphill joined Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes and former Biden official Tim Wu in pitching regulators on an antitrust probe of the company back in 2019. The pitch deck for the probe that was shown in court included “public recognition” of the company’s aggressive acquisition strategy from two reporters: Kara Swisher, who currently hosts two podcasts for The Verge’s parent company, Vox Media, and Om Malik, the founder of the early tech blog GigaOm who is now a venture capitalist.In an attempt to undercut Hemphill’s credibility, Hansen caught Swisher and Malik in the crossfire. He called Malik a “failed blogger” with an axe to grind against Meta. He then suggested that Swisher, whom he referred to as a Vanity Fair columnist (she last wrote for the site in 2015), was similarly biased against the company. In court, he projected a headline about her recently calling Mark Zuckerberg a “small little creature with a shriveled soul.”The 2019 pitch deck shown at court by Hansen also cited a Post story to support that Facebook should be investigated as a monopoly. Meta’s Hansen asked if Hemphill agreed that “The New York Post is a scandal sheet,” to which he replied that he didn’t “have a view one way or another.” Hansen showed the infamous Post front page headline, “Headless Body in Topless Bar,” to make his point.The exchange resurfaced years-old tensions between the press and tech titans. After experiencing relatively positive coverage during the early, aspirational days of Silicon Valley, Facebook and a handful of startups grew to become the largest platforms in the world. Along the way, they’ve chafed at increasingly critical coverage of their businesses. Malik and Swisher have indeed both criticized Meta and its executives. In 2016, Malik critiqued Facebook’s intentions for offering free access to its apps and others in India, after board member Marc Andreesseen blamed local resistance to the program on “anti-colonialism” in a later-deleted tweet. “I am suspicious of any for-profit company arguing its good intentions and its free gifts,” Malik wrote at the time. It was not the first time Meta has pointed a finger at the media while at trialSwisher is famous for taking tech CEOs like Zuckerberg to task in public interviews. Zuckerberg defended platforming Holocaust deniers to her in 2018, and she has called him “the most damaging man in tech.”Tuesday’s exchange was not the first time that Meta has pointed a finger at the media while at trial. When discussing major scandals like Cambridge Analytica from the witness stand, company leaders have chalked up downswings in user sentiment to negative media attention and testified that Meta’s services haven’t seen comparable declines in engagement. The FTC has argued that this fact is a sign of monopoly power because people can’t leave Facebook and Instagram without viable alternatives. A judge will ultimately decide if that is true or not. In the meantime, Meta’s grudges with the press are on full display.See More:

Social media was mankind’s first run-in with AI, and we failed that test horribly, according to tech ethicist Tristan Harris, whom The Atlantic called “the closest thing Silicon Valley has to a conscience.” A recent survey found nearly half of Gen Z respondents wished social media had never been invented. Yet, 60% still spend at least four hours daily on these platforms.  Bullying, social anxiety, addiction, polarization, and misinformation—social media has become a cocktail of disturbing discourse. With GenAI, we have a second chance to ensure technology is used responsibly.  But this is proving difficult. Major AI companies are now adopting collaborative approaches to address governance challenges. Recently, OpenAI announced it would implement Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol, a standard for connecting AI models to data sources that’s rapidly becoming an industry norm with Google following suit.  With any new technology, there are unexpected benefits and consequences. As Harris put it, “whatever our power is as a species, AI amplifies it to an exponential degree.”  While GenAI helps us accomplish more than ever before, dangers exist. A seemingly safe large language model (LLM) can be manipulated by bad actors to create harmful content or be jailbroken to write malicious code. How do we avoid these harmful use cases while benefiting from this powerful technology? Three approaches are possible, each with its own merits and drawbacks.  3 ways to benefit from AI while avoiding harm  Option #1: Government regulation  The automobile brought both convenience and tragedy. We responded with speed limits, seatbelts, and regulations—a process spanning over a century.  Legislators worldwide are attempting similar safeguards with AI. The European Union leads with its AI Act, which entered into force in August 2024. Implementation is phased, with some provisions active since February 2025, banning systems posing “unacceptable risk” like social scoring and untargeted scraping of facial recognition data.  However, these regulations present challenges. European tech leaders worry that punitive EU measures could trigger backlash from the Trump administration. Meanwhile, U.S. regulation develops as a patchwork of state and federal initiatives, with states like Colorado enacting their own comprehensive AI laws.  The EU AI Act’s implementation timeline illustrates this complexity: Some bans started in February 2025, codes of practice follow nine months after entry into force, rules on general-purpose AI at the 12-month mark, while high-risk systems have 36 months to comply.  A real concern exists: Excessive regulation might simply shift development elsewhere. Building a functional LLM model costs only hundreds of millions of dollars—within reach for many countries.  While regulation has its place, the process is too flawed for developing good rules currently. AI evolves too quickly, and the industry attracts too much investment. Resulting regulations risk either stifling innovation or lacking meaningful impact.  So, if government regulation isn’t the panacea for AI’s dangers, what will help?  Option #2: Social discourse  Educators are struggling with GenAI and academic honesty. Some want to block AI entirely, while others see opportunities to empower students who struggle with traditional pedagogy.  Imagine having a perpetually available tutor answering any question—but one that can also complete your assignments. As Satya Nadella put it recently on the Dwarkesh Podcast, his new workflow is to “think with AI and work with my colleagues.” This collaborative approach to AI usage could be a model for educational settings, where AI serves as a thinking partner rather than a replacement for learning.  In homes, schools, online forums, and government, society must reckon with this technology and decide what’s acceptable. Everyone deserves a voice in these conversations. Unfortunately, internet discussions often devolve into trading sound bites without context or nuance.  For meaningful conversations, we must educate ourselves. We need effective channels for public input, perhaps through grassroots movements guiding people toward safe and effective AI usage.  Option #3: Third-party evaluators   Before the 2008 financial crisis, credit rating agencies assigned AAA ratings to subprime mortgages, contributing to economic disaster. The problem? Industry-wide self-interest.  When it comes to AI regulators, of course, we run the risk of an incestuous revolving door that does more harm than good. That doesn’t have to be the case.   Meaningful and thoughtful research is going into AI certifications and third-party evaluators. In the paper AI Certification: Advancing Ethical Practice by Reducing, Peter Cihon et al. propose several notions.   First, because AI technology is advancing so quickly, AI certification should emphasize evergreen principles, such as ethics for AI developers.   Second, AI certification today lacks nuance for particular circumstances, geographies, or industries. Not only is certification homogenous, but many programs treat AI as a “monolithic technology” rather than acknowledging the diverse types, such as facial recognition, LLMs, and anomaly detection.  Finally, to see good results, customers must demand high-quality certifications. They have to be educated about the technology and the associated ethics and safety concerns.  The path forward  The way forward requires multistakeholder, multifaceted conversations about societal goals and preventing AI dangers. If government becomes the default regulator, we risk an uninvestable marketplace or meaningless rubber-stamping.  Independent third-party evaluators combined with informed social discourse offers the best path forward. But we must educate ourselves about this powerful technology’s dangers and realities, or we’ll repeat social media’s errors on a grander scale.  Peter Wang is chief AI and innovation officer at Anaconda. 

Table of Contents Table of Contents Another step toward a true Sonos alternative Between HomePod and Era 100 Still no AirPlay Tomorrow, Wiim will announce its first wireless speaker, the Wiim Sound. It looks like a lot like Apple’s HomePod, with an almost cylindrical shape that’s wrapped in a fabric grille and topped with a set of touch controls. But the detail that will likely get the most attention is its built-in, 1.8-inch circular touchscreen. The hi-res screen offers the same album displays and controls as the one on the front of the Wiim Ultra, the company’s flagship network music streamer. As with all of Wiim’s products, its core feature set is designed to work seamlessly with the rest of the affordable Wiim ecosystem, giving Sonos owners even more reason to make a switch. Recommended Videos The Wiim Sound is set to debut at High End Munich 2025, an audiophile-centric audio show in Germany. Wiim hasn’t released pricing or specific availability yet, noting only that the Wiim Sound will arrive in “Q3 2025 on Amazon and at select retailers.” For now, it’s only available in black. Related Wiim The Wiim Sound isn’t the first Wiim-compatible wireless speaker. Earlier in 2025, the company announced it had partnered with Swedish brand, Audio Pro to create Wiim Edition versions of its A10 Mk II and C10 Mk II wireless speakers, which can be discovered and controlled natively within the Wiim Home app. However, the Wiim Sound marks an important milestone in the company’s evolution as it begins to build out an ecosystem of in-house designed products that let it compete more directly with Sonos. It’s not difficult to imagine that Wiim will continue this expansion, eventually working its way into the rest of Sonos’ categories, such as soundbars, Bluetooth speakers, and possibly headphones. Wiim Physically, the Wiim Sound straddles the line between the Apple HomePod and the Sonos Era 100. Its footprint (5.7 x 5.7 inches) is almost exactly the same as the HomePod, while its height, at 7.5 inches is slightly taller than the Era 100 (7.18 inches). The presence of the circular touchscreen will no doubt renew speculation about Apple’s next HomePod, which has been widely rumored to include some kind of display. Internally, the Wiim Sound is much closer to Sonos’ speaker, with a 4-inch woofer and two balanced-mode radiator (BMR) tweeters. Thanks to those dual tweeters, Wiim says the Sound can reproduce two-channel stereo, though like the Era 100, getting true stereo separation may be tricky. Wiim hasn’t revealed the amplifier layout details, but it claims there’s 100 watts of combined power on tap. On the bottom of the speaker are ports for power, and 10/100 Ethernet, plus a 3.5mm jack for analog inputs. Wireless connectivity is supported by both Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. Wiim calls the Sound a smart speaker, but since there’s no built-in mic and no native voice assistant, that might be stretching the term. You can, however, use it as Amazon Alexa device via the included voice remote. For the Wiim Sound, the company has created a modified version of it Siri-remote clone, the Wiim Voice Remote 2. Alternatively, the Wiim Sound is compatible with Google Assistant and can respond to those voice commands if you own an Assistant-capable smartphone or other device. As with the rest of Wiim’s ecosystem, the Wiim Sound has an impressive array of streaming and EQ features, including: Hi-res audio support up to 24-bit/192 kHz Chromecast (Google Cast), Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, DLNA, or Alexa Cast 24 preset EQ profiles, a 10-band graphic equalizer, and an optional parametric EQ interface Room correction via a smartphone running the Wiim Home app You can control the Wiim Sound as part of a larger multiroom audio system within the Wiim Home app. This includes grouping the Sound with other Wiim components for synchronized playback as well as the ability to stereo-pair two Wiim Sounds. Interestingly, a single Wiim Sound can be used as center channel speaker, or two can be used as surround speakers within a 5.1 configuration. To do this, you’ll need a 5.1 source of sound — either a 5.1 audio recording that lives in your personal library on your home network, or from a TV plugged into one of Wiim’s HDMI-ARC compatible devices (Wiim Ultra, Wiim Amp, Wiim Amp Pro). For reasons known only to Wiim and Apple, the Wiim Sound is now the third Wiim streaming product to launch without support for Apple’s AirPlay 2 wireless streaming protocol. When the Wiim Ultra debuted without AirPlay, it was believed to be a temporary omission — one that would be rectified with a firmware update. This failed to happen, and then Wiim launched the Amp Pro, also without AirPlay. While AirPlay is a useful feature for iPhone users, letting them stream audio on their home Wi-Fi networks from any any app that supports it, its popularity among Wiim’s users is unclear. AirPlay 2 introduces lossy compression, which audiophiles consider an unacceptable tradeoff. Moreover, the trend toward streaming apps building their own version of AirPlay (Tidal Connect, Spotify Connect) plus the availability of Google Cast, reduces the need for AirPlay under most circumstances. Even on an iPhone when streaming Apple Music, Bluetooth can serve as an acceptable AirPlay alternative on Wiim’s products.

end-of-life planning Office apps on Windows 10 are no longer tied to its October 2025 end-of-support date Windows 10 will stop getting free security updates on October 14, 2025. Andrew Cunningham – May 13, 2025 11:24 am | 26 Microsoft 365 will encompass Teams, OneDrive, and the suite of productivity apps formerly known as Office. Credit: Microsoft Microsoft 365 will encompass Teams, OneDrive, and the suite of productivity apps formerly known as Office. Credit: Microsoft Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more For most users, Windows 10 will stop receiving security updates and other official support from Microsoft on October 14, 2025, about five months from today. Until recently, Microsoft had also said that users running the Microsoft Office apps on Windows 10 would also lose support on that date, whether they were using the continually updated Microsoft 365 versions of those apps or the buy-once-own-forever versions included in Office 2021 or Office 2024. Microsoft has recently tweaked this policy, however (as seen by The Verge). Now, Windows 10 users of the Microsoft 365 apps will still be eligible to receive software updates and support through October of 2028, "in the interest of maintaining your security while you upgrade to Windows 11." Microsoft is taking a similar approach to Windows Defender malware definitions, which will be offered to Windows 10 users "through at least October 2028." The policy is a change from a few months ago, when Microsoft insisted that Office apps running on Windows 10 would become officially unsupported on October 14. The perpetually licensed versions of Office will be supported in accordance with Microsoft's "Fixed Lifecycle Policy," which guarantees support and security updates for a fixed number of years after a software product's initial release. For Office 2021, this means Windows 10 users will get support through October of 2026; for Office 2024, this should extend to October of 2029. Some Microsoft support sites still list the old end-of-support dates for Office apps running on Windows 10. We've contacted Microsoft to see whether these sites will be updated to match the new dates. Microsoft is likely extending this Office support date and the Windows Defender definitions to help cover people who buy into the Extended Security Updates program for Windows 10, which will allow individuals and institutions to stay on Windows 10 past the official public end-of-support date. Businesses and other institutions will be able to buy between one and three extra years of security updates, with costs that steadily increase for each year of updates. Individuals will be able to buy a single extra year of updates for a flat $30 per PC. For people who aren't paying for extra Windows 10 updates, Microsoft has stayed firmly committed to both Windows 10's end-of-support date and Windows 11's minimum system requirements, which will prevent many active Windows 10 systems from upgrading to the newer operating system. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Microsoft's solution is that these people should buy a new PC entirely; the company declared 2025 "the year of the Windows 11 PC refresh" back in January. It's possible to install and run Windows 11 on older "unsupported" PCs, and the day-to-day experience is often indistinguishable from running the software on a "supported" PC. But there are additional hoops to jump through when you're installing and upgrading the OS that may keep most non-technical users from wanting to give it a try. Andrew Cunningham Senior Technology Reporter Andrew Cunningham Senior Technology Reporter Andrew is a Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica, with a focus on consumer tech including computer hardware and in-depth reviews of operating systems like Windows and macOS. Andrew lives in Philadelphia and co-hosts a weekly book podcast called Overdue. 26 Comments

Warhammer Skulls is back from the Warp, and will be landing on your computer screens very soon. Starting May 22, a festival of Warhammer-themed game news, reveals, and juicy discounts will pop up in this annual event, promising some updates on recent hits like Space Marine 2, Rogue Trader, and Darktide. Read more