The French Open is one of the most exciting Grand Slams—especially with this year’s lineup. Djokovic, Alcaraz, and Sinner—just those names alone promise a show. Even better, there’s a way to watch the French Open live on a free channel, so you won’t miss a single moment. In this guide, we’ll highlight two free channels for streaming Roland Garros and explain how to access them from anywhere in the world. We’ll also include a few premium streaming services from the UK, Canada, and the US that broadcast the event. Schedule May 25 to June 8 Free channels 9now (Australia) / France TV (France) The schedule for Thursday, June 5 This Thursday at Roland-Garros, we’ll be treated to the two women’s singles semifinals. Here is the detailed schedule: [1] Aryna Sabalenka vs [5] Iga Swiatek (POL) – Not before 3:00 PM CET / 9:00 AM ET / 6:00 AM PST [2] Coco Gauff (USA) vs [WC] Lois Boisson (FRA) Which free channels are broadcasting the French Open live? Reigning and upcoming champs will battle it out on the clay-filled courts and honor us with some epic showdowns. As exciting as it sounds, it doesn’t have to cost a penny. Two free channels broadcast the French Open 2025: 9Now (Australian TV channel) France TV (French TV channel) If you’re in one of these countries, you know you can boot them up and start watching. However, as these are foreign channels for many of you, it’s good to know what they actually provide. 9Now broadcasts the best French Open 2025 matches online for free every day. You’ll need a free account, which takes less than a minute to create. 9Now also offers English commentary, making it a great option for English-speaking viewers. 9Now broadcasts the French Open for free © 9now.com.au France TV is a French channel, so naturally, it features French commentary. It broadcasts all matches (you can follow the action on every court) except for the night sessions. The night sessions refer to the matches played on the Central Court after 8:15 PM Paris time. This TV channel also requires a free account, but again, creating one takes a minute or two, as you can sign up without a TV license. The main gripe with these two is that they’re region-locked to their respective regions. 9Now works only in Australia, whilst France TV works only in France. Trick to Watch the French Open 2025 on a Free Channel from Anywhere To sidestep this inconvenience, people have been relying on VPNs for years. Watching the French Open for free online was never an issue with a popular option like NordVPN. You’ve likely heard of it by this point. Watch the tournament for free with NordVPN As the world’s #1 provider by popularity (and quality), NordVPN provides quintessential servers in Australia and France. It’s also equipped with unrestricted bandwidth and fast 10 Gbps server ports built for speed. The main advantage of NordVPN, according to people online, is compatibility. It works on all desktop and mobile devices, but its VPN app for Fire TV and Apple TV is also there. This makes it easy to watch Roland Garros live for free on your TV. NordVPN allows for a swift IP address change. Once your IP originates from another country, you can overcome stubborn geo-blocks and access new content. Simply put, you’ll need an IP from Australia or France to unblock 9Now or France TV. With NordVPN installed, you just need to connect to a server in the respective country, go to the free channel that streams the French Open 2025, and enjoy. Keep in mind that NordVPN isn’t free, but in this case, it can be. After all, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee. In this period, you can stream the entire Grand Slam and still have ample time left to request and get a full refund. If necessary, we have a tutorial that explains how to test NordVPN free of charge for 30 days. How to Stream the French Open Live in the USA Even in the USA, using the two free channels is a more sensible option. That’s because US-based streaming services are costly. Still, if you don’t want to mess around with VPNs, you can opt for one of these three: Sling TV (TNT) — at least $45.99/mo (Sling Orange or Blue) DirecTV (TNT) — at least $79.99/mo + $69.99/mo for MySports HBO Max — at least $17/mo Sling TV provides access to TNT where the stream will be available — Blue and Orange plans are both eligible. You’ll find that Orange also contains ESPN. DirecTV requires a $69.99/mo MySports package for this purpose. It includes TNT and ESPN Plus for free if you wish to stream other sports. You don’t have to have an eagle eye to see the prices. Sling TV and DirecTV are way out of many people’s budgets. Plus, they don’t have lengthy free trials that would allow you to watch the French Open for free. DirecTV has a risk-free 5-day trial, but that’s roughly a third of the event. Bear in mind that, even if you have an account with one of these three, you still won’t be able to access them abroad. HBO Max can be watched outside the USA, along with DirecTV and Sling TV, but with a caveat — you’ll need a VPN! Watch the French Open With NordVPN Watching Roland Garros 2025 in the UK Brits don’t have a vibrant selection of channels for this case. They do lack horses for the race, but there’s Discovery Plus that comes to the rescue. Unfortunately, Discovery Plus is no joke price-wise and costs £31/mo in the United Kingdom. A notable free trial is missing, as well. Once you spend your £31, you won’t be able to get it back, either. On top of that, Discovery Plus works abroad only with a VPN, even if you have an active subscription paid for regularly. It’s worth noting that Discovery Plus also provides access to Eurosport, which will broadcast the French Grand Slam for the rest of Europe. Eurosport also isn’t free and costs £3.99 for Discovery Plus subscribers. How to Watch Roland Garros Live in Canada Canadians, similarly to Brits, don’t have plenty of choices — TSN is once again there to quench their tennis thirst. Of course, at a price. TSN is relatively inexpensive, so it might be a good option if you’re in Canada. The subscription starts at $8/mo or $80/year if you pay upfront. Like 9Now and Discovery Plus, TSN provides Full HD coverage and includes English commentary for better immersion. Just bear in mind that TSN is Canada-exclusive, so being on vacation rids you of access to it. NordVPN can help you regain access risk-free if you so desire. Other than that, TSN doesn’t provide a free trial and won’t allow you to sign up as a new user without a Canadian payment method. As explained, TSN is adequate only for native Canadian tennis fans. Final Thoughts Your vacation or business trip doesn’t have to squander your plans to watch the French Open 2025 on a free channel. 9Now and France TV are there, and with risk-free NordVPN, you’ll catch up to all major matches with no issues. If you’d rather use premium platforms and don’t mind the price tag, so be it. You have a myriad of options in the US, the UK, and Canada. Sling TV, DirecTV, HBO Max, Discovery Plus, and TSN — six excellent premium channels. Try NordVPN Risk-Free for 30 days

Love or hate them, leaf blowers are undeniably effective: They have have transformed the chore of clearing leaves off your property from a back-straining misery into a (very noisy) stroll across it. And while it’s true that old-school gas-powered leaf blowers have been maligned as loud, polluting scourges, these days you can get a clean, battery-powered model that won’t ruin your relationship with your neighbors while actively destroying the climate.And you might have good reason to. While leaf blowers are seemingly simple, single-use tools (you know, blowing leaves into piles), they’re a lot more versatile than that. By my count, my leaf blower is actually at least six tools in one.Gutter cleanerYour home's gutters protect your property by directing rainwater away from your foundation and walls. But to keep doing that, gutters need maintenance and regular cleaning to ensure they’re not filled with leaves, birds’ nests, and other debris.Cleaning gutters can be a dangerous and dirty chore—or you can buy yourself a gutter cleaning kit that attaches to your leaf blower. Using your leaf blower in this way allows you to stay firmly on the ground, keeps you far away from the mulch-y, damp stuff collecting in your gutters, and makes the job much faster, because you don’t have to keep resetting a ladder every five minutes.Snow shovelClearing snow from your sidewalk, driveway, and other areas of your property can cause back strain, heart attacks, and a generally grim view of the world in general. But if you have a leaf blower, you don’t need a shovel. Leaf blowers are surprisingly effective at clearing away snow as long that's relatively dry and powdery—admittedly, if the snow is dense and wet you’re probably still going to need a shovel to clear it. But if you’re looking at a lot of fresh, light snow, that leaf blower will make short work of it.A portable air dryerLeaf blowers aren’t complex—they blow air out one end, and that’s it. This means yours can act as a portable air dryer. Just washed your car and don’t want to spend the next half hour drying it off by hand? A leaf blower will gently dry it for you. Having guests over and your patio furniture is damp? Leaf blower to the rescue. In fact, just about anything and anyplace where water beads up can be quickly dried with a leaf blower.Filter cleanerHave a vacuum, furnace, or other filter that's dirt-clogged to the point of unsuitability? Cleaning it will make the machine it fits into run better, but it's a chore: Shaking it out isn’t very thorough, and rinsing it with water means you have to build in time for it to dry before you put it back in place. So use a leaf blower to blow out that filter in seconds and put it right back to work.Caution: Some suggest using your leaf blower to clear out your dryer vent. While this may appear to work, it’s also a bad idea: The leaf blower can compact lint inside the vent, making its performance worse and increasing the chance of a fire greater. Stick with cleaning out those filters via another method.Seed spreaderGot a lawn to seed but short on time? Pick up a seed spreader attachment for your leaf blower (this is a real thing I am not making up). It works really well at spraying seeds (or herbicides, or muck pellets, or anything else you want to spread over a large area) quickly and efficiently. (You can even make your own with a drill, saw, a plastic bottle or funnel, and some tape.)Wire threaderIf you’ve ever tried to thread a wire through a conduit, you know there’s a certain amount of black magic involved—even the most straightforward conduit can have you feeling like it leads through an alternate dimension where the laws of physics don’t apply. But with your trusty leaf blower and a plastic bag, you can run that wire through the conduit in seconds: Attach the wire to a standard lightweight plastic bag, drop it in one end of the conduit, and let your leaf blower blow that bag straight through to the other end.

While updating, upgrading, and reimagining your home can transform it into your dream home, the logistics involved can be daunting, even if you have a general contractor managing the project for you. One of the biggest challenges is setting your budget—unless you have an unlimited budget (lucky you!), determining what a home renovation will involve based on what you can afford is a key aspect of your plan.It’s also one of the most confusing. When budgeting reality bumps up against your dream home fantasy, figuring out what to remove from the project can be difficult because of the emotional aspects involved—everything can seem equally necessary when you’re imagining your future life in the home. In order to pare things down in a coherent and rational way, take a page from business school experts and use the time-tested MoSCoW Method.What is the MoSCoW method?The MoSCoW method was innovated by software developer Dai Clegg in the 1990s as a way to prioritize components of a project in order to stay on schedule and within budget. Although it was initially envisioned as a software development tool (and more widely as a tool for managing business projects in general), it’s malleable enough that it can be ideal for varied circumstances—including getting control of a home renovation project.The method involves breaking all the aspects of your project into four buckets, represented by the letters M, S, C, and W (the Os are just there to make the name more readable). The categories are:Must-haves. These are aspects of the project that are non-negotiable and mandatory.Should-haves. These are parts of the project that aren’t absolutely necessary, but are relatively important.Could-haves. These are smaller details that can easily be removed from the project or added in later if budget allows.Won’t haves. These are aspects of the project that aren’t under consideration at all.The simplicity of the MoSCoW method is its main strength—it’s easy to whip your home reno budget into shape in a short time by plopping everything into the relevant bucket.Using MoSCoW to plan a home renovation projectWhen you’re planning out your home renovation, start dropping each aspect into a bucket as you go:Things that absolutely have to be done are Must Haves. For example, if part of your renovation is replacing a leaking roof, that’s a Must Have—you have no choice, so that cost is baked into your budget from the get-go.Major components of the project that aren’t absolutely necessary fall into the Should Have bucket. If your old hardwood floors are worn but serviceable, replacing them is a big part of what you want to get out of the renovation—but you could leave them in place, or try to refinish them instead of replacing them. These would be the last parts of your project that you remove or downgrade.Grace notes and luxuries go into the Could Have bucket and held there pending how the budget plays out. For example, maybe you’d like your new flooring to have radiant heating. That’s nice, but not an absolute necessity. If money opens up later in the planning, you can toss it in.Finally, there’s the Won’t Have bucket. This might seem like an unnecessary step, since anything not already sorted into a bucket could be considered a Won’t Have. But the exercise of specifically labeling it as a Won’t Have is useful because it brings clarity to your priorities. If you find more budget later, you’ve already prioritized the Could Haves as more deserving of rescue. Won’t Haves aren’t necessarily things you’ll never do—they’re just things you’re not doing now. For example, maybe your HVAC system is a little old and you’re thinking it will need to be replaced in the next few years—but not at this moment, because you’re spending your money on all these other projects. So you put that into the Won’t Have bucket because you know you’ll be returning to it in the future.Once you’ve done an initial categorization of your home renovation, you can start crunching numbers to see if changes are necessary or desired. Maybe you decide, on reflection, that a Should Have is really a Must Have, or vice versa. And if your budget can’t deliver on every priority, you can shift some things into the Could Have bucket and hold them in reserve for the future.Any successful home renovation is as much about planning and prioritization as it is about budget and schedule management, and the MoSCoW Method can help ensure your project is on track before anyone touches a power tool.

Fire and Rescue Center Trzin / Arhitekti Počivašek PetranovičSave this picture!© Urban PetranovičFire Station•Trzin, Slovenia Architects: Arhitekti Počivašek Petranovič Area Area of this architecture project Area:  1430 m² Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2021 Photographs Photographs:Urban PetranovičMore SpecsLess Specs Save this picture! Text description provided by the architects. The protection and rescue centre is situated at the entrance to the old part of the municipality of Trzin. Its appearance is inspired by the traditional fire station typology with the characteristic tower (for hose drying), which becomes the new spatial dominant, a symbol signaling arrival in Trzin.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!The building combines two programmes in a single volume. The roadside section accommodates rooms for different clubs, firefighters, and a multipurpose hall. The second part is a two-level garage for fire engines.Save this picture!The choice of materials adapts to the programme and is accordingly robust – aluminium windows with overhangs, hot dip galvanized railings, and an exposed concrete structure that also serves as a façade. The southern entrance façade is accentuated with color.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!The entrances are marked with exposed-concrete overhangs and large window openings connect the object with the neighborhood, directing views to the surrounding nature. The large space in front of the building is divided into a courtyard for fire engines and an entrance square with a linden tree and a bench.Save this picture! Project gallerySee allShow less Project locationAddress:Trzin, SloveniaLocation to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.About this office MaterialConcreteMaterials and TagsPublished on June 01, 2025Cite: "Fire and Rescue Center Trzin / Arhitekti Počivašek Petranovič" 01 Jun 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1030413/fire-and-rescue-centre-trzin-arhitekti-pocivasek-petranovic&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save世界上最受欢迎的建筑网站现已推出你的母语版本!想浏览ArchDaily中国吗?是否 You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

I grew up in urban areas where seeing birds “in the wild” are a rarity. That’s why I’m always amazed when I travel and I see different species just flying and hanging around window sills, the park, picnic tables, and some even perch on people. But urban areas are dangerous places for birds as they are filled with hazards for them like tall buildings, glass windows, and artificial structures. People who live in areas like this will probably see injured birds every once in a while but we don’t really know how to treat them on our own. What if giving first aid to these injured birds is as easy as treating mild human injuries? BirdAid is an innovative, biodegradable splint designed to provide immediate first aid to injured wild birds, particularly in urban environments. The project emphasizes sustainability and compassionate care for wildlife. It is made from natural materials including eggshell calcium, agar, and potato starch. The materials, specifically the eggshells, were chosen since they provide natural calcium for bone recovery while the rest are to control the decomposition rate. Designers: Zay Kim, Chaewon Lee, and Jungmin Park They developed three splint variants with different decomposition rates to help users identify the severity of the injury and which to apply to that wound. Each material has a different color, including gardenia (yellow), basil (green), and beetroot (red), and this intuitive system helps non-experts still render first aid when needed. Using it is pretty easy as you just have to take the pack from the kit and then crush it. Then you just gently wrap it around the bird’s wound and wait for it to do its work. If you’re still confused about what to do, you just need to scan the QR code on the kit and read and follow the instructions indicated. The QR code links to a simple, step-by-step guide—complete with visuals—to help anyone, regardless of medical or veterinary background, confidently provide first aid to an injured bird. This ensures that even in stressful or unfamiliar situations, users can take quick and effective action without hesitation. BirdAid represents a small yet significant gesture towards integrating compassionate care into daily urban life. It bridges the gap between professional wildlife rescue and ordinary citizens, empowering people to make a difference in moments that truly matter. By enabling city dwellers to aid injured birds using a tool that is both intuitive and environmentally friendly, BirdAid not only supports animal welfare but also fosters a deeper sense of empathy, responsibility, and connection to the natural world within bustling city environments. The post BirdAid concept brings biodegradable splint for injured urban birds first appeared on Yanko Design.

The HD-2D remakes of Dragon Quest I & II will be coming to PlayStation 5 on October 30, 2025. Experience the conclusion of the Erdrick trilogy in breathtaking HD-2D which seamlessly blends 3D graphics and pixel art. Dragon Quest I & II Dragon Quest I & II, which take place after Dragon Quest III, will be released in one package, allowing players to fully experience the adventures of the scions of Erdrick. Dragon Quest I Thanks to the heroic efforts of the legendary Erdrick, the Lord of the Underworld was defeated and peace returned to the land of Alefgard. Yet this peace was not to last, as the diabolical Dragonlord rose up and unleashed horde upon horde of monsters on the realm once more. Now it falls to you, Erdrick’s descendant, to lay the fiend low and rescue the world from its plight! The original game exclusively pitted the player against singular foes, however, the remake features battles against multiple enemies. Dragon Quest II Many years have passed since Alefgard was saved at the hero’s hand, earning him the same title as his storied forebear. The descendants of this Erdrick and his scions founded three kingdoms that thrived in peacetime. Yet, darkness stirs once more and a sudden invasion of malicious monsters plunges the world into shadow again. All that stands between the forces of evil and their wicked ambitions is a band of young princes and princesses of Erdrick’s lineage. The time has come for them to venture forth and honor their ancestor’s legacy. In addition to updated HD-2D graphics, both games feature new stories, new areas, and numerous other improvements and updates. What is the Erdrick trilogy? Dragon Quest, Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line and Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation—the first three games in this long-running series—are connected both in their stories and the worlds in which they take place. They have come to be known collectively as “The Erdrick Trilogy”— Erdrick being the name passed down to each new incarnation of the legendary hero. Playing the HD-2D versions of Dragon Quest I & II after Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake will allow players to enjoy the connections between these three titles. A world remade in HD-2D HD-2D is a graphical style developed by Square Enix Co., LTD.’s Team Asano that combines pixel art and 3D graphics. The advanced visual effects used alongside this combination of two-dimensional and three-dimensional styles creates a blend that is both new and nostalgic. Pre-orders are open for Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake, which goes on sale October 30, 2025.

Thanks to the legal discovery process, Google’s antitrust trial with the Department of Justice has provided a fascinating glimpse into the future of ChatGPT.An internal OpenAI strategy document titled “ChatGPT: H1 2025 Strategy” describes the company’s aspiration to build an “AI super assistant that deeply understands you and is your interface to the internet.” Although the document is heavily redacted in parts, it reveals that OpenAI aims for ChatGPT to soon develop into much more than a chatbot. “In the first half of next year, we’ll start evolving ChatGPT into a super-assistant: one that knows you, understands what you care about, and helps with any task that a smart, trustworthy, emotionally intelligent person with a computer could do,” reads the document from late 2024. “The timing is right. Models like 02 and 03 are finally smart enough to reliably perform agentic tasks, tools like computer use can boost ChatGPT’s ability to take action, and interaction paradigms like multimodality and generative UI allow both ChatGPT and users to express themselves in the best way for the task.”The document goes on to describe a “super assistant” as “an intelligent entity with T-shaped skills” for both widely applicable and niche tasks. “The broad part is all about making life easier: answering a question, finding a home, contacting a lawyer, joining a gym, planning vacations, buying gifts, managing calendars, keeping track of todos, sending emails.” It mentions coding as an early example of a more niche task.Even when reading around the redactions, it’s clear that OpenAI sees hardware as essential to its future, and that it wants people to think of ChatGPT as not just a tool, but a companion. This tracks with Sam Altman recently saying that young people are using ChatGPT like a “ life advisor.”“Today, ChatGPT is in our lives through existing form factors — our website, phone, and desktop apps,” another part of the strategy document reads. “But our vision for ChatGPT is to help you with all of your life, no matter where you are. At home, it should help answer questions, play music, and suggest recipes. On the go, it should help you get to places, find the best restaurants, or catch up with friends. At work, it should help you take meeting notes, or prepare for the big presentation. And on solo walks, it should help you reflect and wind down.” At the same time, OpenAI finds itself in a wobbly position. Its infrastructure isn’t able to handle ChatGPT’s rising usage, which explains Altman’s focus on building data centers. In a section of the document describing AI chatbot competition, the company writes that “we are leading here, but we can’t rest,” and that “growth and revenue won’t line up forever.” It acknowledges that there are “powerful incumbents who will leverage their distribution to advantage their own products,” and states that OpenAI will advocate for regulation that requires other platforms to allow people to set ChatGPT as the default assistant. (Coincidentally, Apple is rumored to soon let iOS users also select Google’s Gemini for Siri queries. Meta AI just hit one billion users as well, thanks mostly to its many hooks in Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook.) “We have what we need to win: one of the fastest-growing products of all time, a category-defining brand, a research lead (reasoning, multimodal), a compute lead, a world-class research team, and an increasing number of effective people with agency who are motivated to ship,” the OpenAI document states. “We don’t rely on ads, giving us flexibility on what to build. Our culture values speed, bold moves, and self-disruption. Maintaining these advantages is hard work but, if we do, they will last for a while.”ElsewhereApple chickens out: For the first time in a decade, Apple won’t have its execs participate in John Gruber’s annual post-WWDC live podcast. Gruber recently wrote the viral “something is rotten in the state of Cupertino” essay, which was widely discussed in Apple circles. Although he hasn’t publicly connected that critical piece to the company backing out of his podcast, it’s easy to see the throughline. It says a lot about the state of Apple when its leaders don’t even want to participate in what has historically been a friendly forum.Elon was high: As Elon Musk attempts to reframe the public’s view of him by doing interviews about SpaceX, The New York Times reports that last year, he was taking so much ketamine that it “was affecting his bladder.” He also reportedly “traveled with a daily medication box that held about 20 pills, including ones with the markings of the stimulant Adderall.” Both Musk and the White House have had multiple opportunities to directly refute this report, and they have not. Now, Musk is at least partially stepping away from DOGE along with key lieutenants like Steve Davis. DOGE may be a failure based on Musk’s own stated hopes for spending cuts, but his closeness to Trump has certainly helped rescue X from financial ruin and grown SpaceX’s business. Now, the more difficult work begins: saving Tesla. Overheard“The way we do ranking is sacrosanct to us.” - Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Decoder, explaining why the company’s search results won’t be changed for President Trump or anyone else. “Compared to previous technology changes, I’m a little bit more worried about the labor impact… Yes, people will adapt, but they may not adapt fast enough.” - Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on CNN raising the alarm about the technology he is developing. “Meta is a very different company than it was nine years ago when they fired me.” - Anduril founder Palmer Luckey telling Ashlee Vance why he is linking up with Mark Zuckerberg to make headsets for the military. Personnel logThe flattening of Meta’s AI organization has taken effect, with VP Ahmad Al-Dahle no longer overseeing the entire group. Now, he co-leads “AGI Foundations” with Amir Frenkel, VP of engineering, while Connor Hayes runs all AI products. All three men now report to Meta CPO Chris Cox, who has diplomatically framed the changes as a way to “give each org more ownership.”Xbox co-founder J Allard is leading a new ‘breakthrough’ devices group at Amazon called ZeroOne. One of the devices will be smart home-related, according to job listings.C.J. Mahoney, a former Trump administration official, is being promoted to general counsel at Microsoft, which has also hired Lisa Monaco from the last Biden administration to lead global policy. Reed Hastings is joining the board of Anthropic “because I believe in their approach to AI development, and to help humanity progress.” (He’s joining Anthropic’s corporate board, not the supervising board of its public benefit trust that can hire and fire corporate directors.)Sebastian Barrios, previously SVP at Mercado Libre, is joining Roblox as SVP of engineering for several areas, including ads, game discovery, and the company’s virtual currency work.Fidji Simo’s replacement at Instacart will be chief business officer Chris Rogers, who will become the company’s next CEO on August 15th after she officially joins OpenAI.Link listMore to click on:If you haven’t already, don’t forget to subscribe to The Verge, which includes unlimited access to Command Line and all of our reporting.As always, I welcome your feedback, especially if you have thoughts on this issue or a story idea to share. You can respond here or ping me securely on Signal.Thanks for subscribing.See More:

Thanks to the legal discovery process, Google’s antitrust trial with the Department of Justice has provided a fascinating glimpse into the future of ChatGPT.An internal OpenAI strategy document titled “ChatGPT: H1 2025 Strategy” describes the company’s aspiration to build an “AI super assistant that deeply understands you and is your interface to the internet.” Although the document is heavily redacted in parts, it reveals that OpenAI aims for ChatGPT to soon develop into much more than a chatbot. “In the first half of next year, we’ll start evolving ChatGPT into a super-assistant: one that knows you, understands what you care about, and helps with any task that a smart, trustworthy, emotionally intelligent person with a computer could do,” reads the document from late 2024. “The timing is right. Models like 02 and 03 are finally smart enough to reliably perform agentic tasks, tools like computer use can boost ChatGPT’s ability to take action, and interaction paradigms like multimodality and generative UI allow both ChatGPT and users to express themselves in the best way for the task.”The document goes on to describe a “super assistant” as “an intelligent entity with T-shaped skills” for both widely applicable and niche tasks. “The broad part is all about making life easier: answering a question, finding a home, contacting a lawyer, joining a gym, planning vacations, buying gifts, managing calendars, keeping track of todos, sending emails.” It mentions coding as an early example of a more niche task.Even when reading around the redactions, it’s clear that OpenAI sees hardware as essential to its future, and that it wants people to think of ChatGPT as not just a tool, but a companion. This tracks with Sam Altman recently saying that young people are using ChatGPT like a “ life advisor.”“Today, ChatGPT is in our lives through existing form factors — our website, phone, and desktop apps,” another part of the strategy document reads. “But our vision for ChatGPT is to help you with all of your life, no matter where you are. At home, it should help answer questions, play music, and suggest recipes. On the go, it should help you get to places, find the best restaurants, or catch up with friends. At work, it should help you take meeting notes, or prepare for the big presentation. And on solo walks, it should help you reflect and wind down.” At the same time, OpenAI finds itself in a wobbly position. Its infrastructure isn’t able to handle ChatGPT’s rising usage, which explains Altman’s focus on building data centers. In a section of the document describing AI chatbot competition, the company writes that “we are leading here, but we can’t rest,” and that “growth and revenue won’t line up forever.” It acknowledges that there are “powerful incumbents who will leverage their distribution to advantage their own products,” and states that OpenAI will advocate for regulation that requires other platforms to allow people to set ChatGPT as the default assistant. (Coincidentally, Apple is rumored to soon let iOS users also select Google’s Gemini for Siri queries. Meta AI just hit one billion users as well, thanks mostly to its many hooks in Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook.) “We have what we need to win: one of the fastest-growing products of all time, a category-defining brand, a research lead (reasoning, multimodal), a compute lead, a world-class research team, and an increasing number of effective people with agency who are motivated to ship,” the OpenAI document states. “We don’t rely on ads, giving us flexibility on what to build. Our culture values speed, bold moves, and self-disruption. Maintaining these advantages is hard work but, if we do, they will last for a while.”ElsewhereApple chickens out: For the first time in a decade, Apple won’t have its execs participate in John Gruber’s annual post-WWDC live podcast. Gruber recently wrote the viral “something is rotten in the state of Cupertino” essay, which was widely discussed in Apple circles. Although he hasn’t publicly connected that critical piece to the company backing out of his podcast, it’s easy to see the throughline. It says a lot about the state of Apple when its leaders don’t even want to participate in what has historically been a friendly forum.Elon was high: As Elon Musk attempts to reframe the public’s view of him by doing interviews about SpaceX, The New York Times reports that last year, he was taking so much ketamine that it “was affecting his bladder.” He also reportedly “traveled with a daily medication box that held about 20 pills, including ones with the markings of the stimulant Adderall.” Both Musk and the White House have had multiple opportunities to directly refute this report, and they have not. Now, Musk is at least partially stepping away from DOGE along with key lieutenants like Steve Davis. DOGE may be a failure based on Musk’s own stated hopes for spending cuts, but his closeness to Trump has certainly helped rescue X from financial ruin and grown SpaceX’s business. Now, the more difficult work begins: saving Tesla. Overheard“The way we do ranking is sacrosanct to us.” - Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Decoder, explaining why the company’s search results won’t be changed for President Trump or anyone else. “Compared to previous technology changes, I’m a little bit more worried about the labor impact… Yes, people will adapt, but they may not adapt fast enough.” - Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on CNN raising the alarm about the technology he is developing. “Meta is a very different company than it was nine years ago when they fired me.” - Anduril founder Palmer Luckey telling Ashlee Vance why he is linking up with Mark Zuckerberg to make headsets for the military. Personnel logThe flattening of Meta’s AI organization has taken effect, with VP Ahmad Al-Dahle no longer overseeing the entire group. Now, he co-leads “AGI Foundations” with Amir Frenkel, VP of engineering, while Connor Hayes runs all AI products. All three men now report to Meta CPO Chris Cox, who has diplomatically framed the changes as a way to “give each org more ownership.”Xbox co-founder J Allard is leading a new ‘breakthrough’ devices group at Amazon called ZeroOne. One of the devices will be smart home-related, according to job listings.C.J. Mahoney, a former Trump administration official, is being promoted to general counsel at Microsoft, which has also hired Lisa Monaco from the last Biden administration to lead global policy. Reed Hastings is joining the board of Anthropic “because I believe in their approach to AI development, and to help humanity progress.” (He’s joining Anthropic’s corporate board, not the supervising board of its public benefit trust that can hire and fire corporate directors.)Sebastian Barrios, previously SVP at Mercado Libre, is joining Roblox as SVP of engineering for several areas, including ads, game discovery, and the company’s virtual currency work.Fidji Simo’s replacement at Instacart will be chief business officer Chris Rogers, who will become the company’s next CEO on August 15th after she officially joins OpenAI.Link listMore to click on:If you haven’t already, don’t forget to subscribe to The Verge, which includes unlimited access to Command Line and all of our reporting.As always, I welcome your feedback, especially if you have thoughts on this issue or a story idea to share. You can respond here or ping me securely on Signal.Thanks for subscribing.See More:

Warning: contains finale spoilers for Dept. Q See it? Blink and you won’t have, but it was there for a good half second: a smile on the face of DCI Carl Morck. It’s a rare enough occurrence across nine episodes of this Netflix crime drama to make it worthy of note. Matthew Goode’s irascible detective frowned, scowled and spitted out sarcasm through his new department’s search for missing prosecutor Merritt Lingard, until the show’s very last moment, when he smiled. He’d earned it. Three months earlier, Morck’s cold case unit had rescued Lingard and used dirt dug up during the investigation to blackmail the Lord Advocate (the most senior law officer in Scotland) into a funding hike, a new work car, and fast-tracked DI status for Syrian copper and calmly proficient muscle Akram Salim. And now, Morck’s partner Hardy, formerly thought to have permanently lost the use of his legs after they were both shot in the line of duty, was walking again. It was a happy ending, or at least as happy as things get in a dank Edinburgh basement filled with unsolved case files detailing terrible crimes. With major Dept. Q finale spoilers, let’s dig into the revelations about Merritt’s kidnappers, what we learned about the Leith Park shooting, and more. Who Kidnapped Merritt Lingard and Why? Merritt’s kidnappers were Lyle and Ailsa Jennings, respectively the younger brother and mother of Harry Jennings, Merritt’s boyfriend as a teenager. She was being held on their property on her childhood island home of Mhòr, in a pressurised hyperbaric chamber inside a condemned building that was formerly part of Ailsa’s husband’s oceanography business Shorebird Ocean Systems – the logo for which was the cormorant symbol identified by Merritt’s brother William as on the hat of her stalker and kidnapper. Ailsa was a twisted and abusive mother to Harry and Lyle, as well as a murderer who killed her husband by burning the house down by flicking lighted matches at him while he slept. As a result, Lyle grew up to be a violent psychopath whose teenage crimes were covered up by the family and by the island’s police officer John Cunningham. John knew that Lyle was responsible for Merritt’s disappearance, but didn’t know she was still alive, having believed Lyle when he lied that Merritt had died by falling off the ferry from the mainland, just like Lyle’s brother Harry had done years earlier. Lyle and Ailsa blamed Merritt for Harry’s death because he jumped from the ferry while being pursued by John, who was chasing him because he was suspected of having severely beaten Merritt’s brother William into a coma during an interrupted robbery of the Lingard home. The robbery plan had been seeded by Merritt to steal her mother’s jewellery from her alcoholic father in order to sell for money to run away from home. In fact, Lyle was the one who had attacked William, being unhinged and thinking that he was protecting his brother. Harry and Ailsa covered up Lyle’s guilt and before his death, Harry took the blame. Lyle Jennings, Godhaven, and Sam Haig Lyle, who had a history of stalking, breaking-and-entering, and animal murder, spent time in youth psychiatric facility Godhaven, where he stalked another patient named Sam Haig. The pair fought, and Sam injured Lyle’s eye so severely that it was left permanently discoloured. Years later as an adult who had become an investigative journalist with no online presence, Sam sought Lyle out to apologise for the injury and invite him to come climbing at his favourite spot. Lyle used the information he had on Sam to assume his identity and stalk Merritt Lingard, who didn’t recognise him as an adult. He pretended to be investigating corruption at Merritt’s workplace, and targeted her, eventually starting a sexual relationship still pretending to be Sam. When Merritt told Lyle-as-Sam that she was leaving to go to Mhòr on the 10am ferry the next day, Lyle used that information to kidnap her during the crossing. Merritt’s brother William, who had been unable to speak since his teenage coma, had spotted Lyle on the ferry and because of Lyle’s distinctive hat, recognised him as the man who’d been stalking their house. He tried to communicate this to Merritt by throwing his own hat, and then struck her when he became afraid. It was when Merritt went to retrieve William’s hat that she was taken. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! Two days after Lyle kidnapped Merritt, he returned to the mainland to tie up loose ends and kill the real Sam Haig. He lured Sam to a remote spot, beat him to death, staged his corpse to look as though he had been climbing, and threw it off a cliff. Eventually, Morck and co. worked out that somebody else was pretending to be Sam Haig when they had evidence that Merritt had been with “Sam” at a hotel at the same time that the real Sam was having an affair with his friend’s wife at a different hotel. What Happened to Lyle and Ailsa Jennings? Merritt’s kidnappers both died – Ailsa by her own hand as she shot herself in her car before being taken into custody by the police, and Lyle by Akram’s hand, or rather, his trigger finger. After Lyle shot buckshot into Morck’s shoulder, Akram threw a knife at him, disarmed and shot him. Previously, Lyle had brutally killed Constable John Cunningham with a hammer when he learned that Merritt was still alive. Mark Bonnar’s character Stephen Burns had disallowed the appearance of a key witness in the Graham Finch murder trial after Burns’ daughter was run off the road by one of Finch’s goons as an intimidation tactic. Prisoner Kirsty Atkins was willing to testify that she had previously met Finch’s now-dead wife at a shelter for survivors of domestic violence, and that Finch routinely hit her. Because Burns wouldn’t allow her testimony, Finch was acquitted of his wife’s murder despite clearly having been guilty of it. Perhaps he also passed on the information about Kirsty Atkins to Finch’s lawyer, which led to Kirsty being viciously attacked and partially blinded in prison on Finch’s orders to keep her quiet. Who Is the Leith Park Shooter? We still don’t know who shot PC Anderson dead, and attempted to shoot Morck and Hardy dead at the Leith Park flat. If we can take the contents of Morck’s dream as gospel, then the shooting was done on the orders of Leith Park criminal kingpin Eugene Errington, whom we’ve yet to meet. According to Morck’s dream, in which he shot Errington’s muscle Charlie Bell in the head, Errington has a baby with Caroline Kerr – the witness who was intimidated into withdrawing her statement about the shooting. We also know, or at least have a pretty good idea, that PC Anderson was a corrupt officer working for Errington, and that he may even have been the one to stab the victim – thought to have been a police informant – in the head. Anderson was a top recruit pretending to be a klutz, Morck realised, in order to cover up the fact that his fingerprints were all over the victim’s flat. He also lied about being at the flat for a routine welfare check after being alerted by the victim’s daughter – that was a quick-thinking ruse to explain his presence when Morck and Hardy showed up there unexpectedly. The last we saw of the Leith Park case, Moira looked to be taking it away from its lead investigator and possibly closing it, unsolved, which may point to her also having been compromised by Errington. As Hardy was one of the shooting’s victims, surely that can’t be the case file that she gave to Hardy to investigate without Morck in the season’s closing moments? Dept. Q is streaming now on Netflix.

Each week on Polygon, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home. This week, Captain America: Brave New World, the Marvel superhero movie starring Anthony Mackie and Harrison Ford, smashes its way onto Disney Plus after hitting video on demand in April. It’s a big week for animation, with the Oscar-nominated The Wild Robot and the Korean science fiction romance Lost in Starlight both releasing on Netflix, while DreamWorks’ adaptation of Dav Pilkey’s internationally bestselling Dog Man graphic novel series arrives on Peacock. New titles available to rent include the Chinese legal thriller The Prosecutor, and two tales of forbidden love: the Shakespearean musical Juliet & Romeo and The Grey director Joe Carnahan’s action flick Shadow Force. Here’s everything new that’s available to watch this weekend! New on Netflix Lost in Starlight Genre: Science fiction romanceDirector: Han Ji-wonCast: Kim Tae-ri, Hong Kyung/Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Justin H. Min Set in 2050 Seoul, Netflix’s first Korean original animated film is a story of literally star-crossed lovers. An astronaut headed for Mars and a musician fall for each other and face the pain of separation. Trying to make a long-distance relationship work is especially difficult when you’re 139 million miles away from each other. A Widow’s Game Genre: Crime dramaDirector: Carlos SedesCast: Carmen Machi, Ivana Baquero, Tristán Ulloa Based on a true story, this Spanish film stars Ivana Baquero (Pan’s Labyrinth) as Maje, the young widow of a man stabbed seven times and left in a parking lot in a seeming crime of passion. The investigation leads to Maje’s lovers, as the police try to figure out who’s really behind the crime. The Wild Robot Genre: Family science fictionRun time: 1h 42mDirector: Chris SandersCast: Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor Based on Peter Brown’s middle-grade book, DreamWorks’ Academy Award-nominated film follows Roz (Lupita Nyong’o), a helpful robot who accidentally washes up on an island that’s only inhabited by animals. While she initially terrifies all the creatures there, she winds up befriending a fox (Pedro Pascal) who helps her raise a runty gosling (Kit Connor) and prepare him for his first migration. From our review:  From director Chris Sanders (Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon), The Wild Robot is a tenderly crafted story that pushes computer animation in a beautiful new direction — and is exactly the sort of movie that the current animation landscape so desperately needs. New on Disney Plus Captain America: Brave New World Genre: Superhero actionRun time: 1h 58mDirector: Julius OnahCast: Anthony Mackie, Danny Ramirez, Harrison Ford Set after the events of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Captain America: Brave New World sees Sam Wilson — having fully embraced his role as the new Captain America — being called on to resolve an international incident in the wake of a failed assassination attempt on newly elected President Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford). With time running out and the walls closing in, will Sam be able to come out on top and rescue the world from the brink of devastation? Probably! From our review: As a Captain America movie, Brave New World is batting strongly below average. Its plot is at least mildly reminiscent of 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but it’s both fair and unfair to compare the two. Unfair in that Winter Soldier is still among the best-regarded MCU movies, while BNW is running uphill from table-setting a potential new Captain America franchise, dealing with post-production rewrites and reshoots, and the general malaise of the MCU’s post-Avengers: Endgame audience. But fair in that, like Winter Soldier, BNW was also clearly designed as a grounded thriller (by the sliding scale of “grounded” in the MCU) featuring global political stakes and a superpowered conspiracy at its heart. New on Hulu The Seed of the Sacred Fig Genre: Political dramaRun time: 2h 48mDirector: Mohammad RasoulofCast: Soheila Golestani, Missagh Zareh, Mahsa Rostami Writer and director Mohammad Rasoulof had to flee Iran after he was sentenced to eight years in prison ahead of the premiere of The Seed of the Sacred Fig. The Oscar- and Golden Globe-nominated film is a fictional story set against the backdrop of political protests, incorporating real footage of the 2022 and 2023 unrest that followed the death of 22-year-old Jina Mahsa Amini, who was fatally beaten by Iranian “morality police” under the accusation that she was wearing her hijab improperly. New on Peacock Dog Man Genre: Family comedyRun time: 1h 29mDirector: Peter HastingsCast: Peter Hastings, Pete Davidson, Lil Rel Howery Peter Hastings continues the Captain Underpants franchise with an adaptation of Dav Pilkey’s graphic novel series about a hero created when a police officer and his dog were stitched together into one individual after being wounded while failing to defuse a bomb. Pete Davidson plays Dog Man’s evil cat nemesis in the DreamWorks film, which uses CG animation styled to resemble craft materials. New on Starz Flight Risk Genre: ThrillerRun time: 1h 31mDirector: Mel GibsonCast: Mark Wahlberg, Topher Grace, Michelle Dockery No one is quite who they seem in Mel Gibson’s claustrophobic thriller, where a U.S. Marshal (Michelle Dockery) hires a pilot (Mark Wahlberg) to get an informant from Alaska to New York so he can testify against the crime family he worked for. As they travel across the wilderness, the group fights for control of the increasingly tense and violent flight. New on Shudder and HIDIVE Vampire Hunter D Genre: Horror animeRun time: 1h 31mDirector: Toyoo AshidaCast: Kaneto Shiozawa, Michie Tomizawa, Seizō Katō AMC Networks re-released a digitally remastered version of Toyoo Ashida’s classic anime film to celebrate its 40th anniversary in theaters in April, and is now offering it across both its anime and horror streaming services. Set in a far future where vampires rule the world, the action-packed film follows a mysterious vampire hunter hired to protect a woman from a vampire lord who wants her to be his next bride. New to digital Fight or Flight Genre: Action comedyRun time: 1h 42mDirector: James MadiganCast: Josh Hartnett, Katee Sackhoff, Charithra Chandran Basically Bullet Train but in the air, Fight or Flight casts Black Hawk Down and Penny Dreadful star Josh Hartnett as a disgraced Secret Service agent given the chance to clear his name by catching an elusive hacker known as the Ghost, who’s boarded a flight from Bangkok to San Francisco. Unfortunately, the plane is packed with assassins looking to kill the Ghost and anyone who gets in their way. Juliet & Romeo Genre: Musical romanceRun time: 2h 2mDirector: Timothy Scott BogartCast: Jamie Ward, Clara Rugaard, Rupert Everett West Side Story already did the decisive musical version of Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet, but this adaptation plays closer to the original text while adding a soundtrack full of original pop tunes to the tale of two feuding houses of Verona. Filmed on location in Italy, Juliet & Romeo’s high-profile supporting cast includes Jason Isaacs (Harry Potter, The White Lotus) as Lord Montague and Rebel Wilson (Bridesmaids, Pitch Perfect) as Lady Capulet. The Prosecutor Genre: Legal thrillerRun time: 1h 57mDirector: Donnie YenCast: Donnie Yen, Cheung Chi Lam Julian, Michael Hui Ip Man’s Donnie Yen directs and stars in this Chinese legal thriller loosely based on a real 2016 drug trafficking case. Yen plays detective Fok Chi-ho, who loses faith in policing and decides the better way to ensure criminals face justice is as a public prosecutor. The Prosecutor might be mostly courtroom drama, but there’s still plenty of action, combining old-school martial arts techniques with modern film technology. Shadow Force Genre: Action thrillerRun time: 1h 43mDirector: Joe CarnahanCast: Kerry Washington, Omar Sy, Mark StrongEight years ago, Kyrah Owens (Kerry Washington of Scandal and Little Fires Everywhere) and Isaac Sarr (Omar Sy of Lupin and Jurassic World) joined a multinational special forces group dubbed Shadow Force, but they’ve left that life behind to raise their son. Their old boss (played by Mark Strong of Shazam! and Sherlock Holmes) doesn’t accept their resignation, and is trying to hunt them down.