Nacelle Unveils Wave 2 of Biker Mice From Mars Action Figures  Nacelle is expanding its NacelleVerse with a new wave of Biker Mice from Mars 1/12 scale figures, now featuring iconic villains and fresh heroes. The lineup includes Charley, Carbine, Lawrence Limburger, Doctor Karbunkle (with Fred the Mutant) and Greasepit. Each action figure will be packed with eccentric accessories and interchangeable parts. Following strong fan demand, production was fast-tracked to bring more characters and long-awaited villains to shelves. The beloved animated series is also being revived by Nacelle alongside Maximum Effort’s Ryan Reynolds.  Check out the full lineup here  Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick Reunite Onscreen for The Best You Can  Kevin Bacon puts his dancing shoes back on for Michael J. Weithorn’s new film The Best You Can, which premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 7. This new Bacon feature, however, is far from a musical, and it will be the first time in over 20 years that Bacon and his wife Kyra Sedgwick reunite on the screen.  The new film will follow Stan (Bacon), who is home security guard, and Cynthia (Sedgwick), a doctor who forms an unlikely bond with Stan after her home gets invaded. Their friendship is formed entirely over text following their initial encounter.  Of course, working with actors who are married in real-life can throw off the illusion of an unexpected connection that Weithorn is trying to achieve. His solution? Weithorn tells Entertainment Weekly that he asked Bacon and Sedgwick to avoid rehearsing together; he also decided to put Sedgwick in a wig (brilliant) to hopefully make her appearance foreign to Bacon, and set the scene for the two meeting for the first time– and not that they’ve been married for like 36 years.  “For Weithorn, the experience opened him up to the idea of writing a film where texting is one of the primary modes of communication between his protagonists, reflecting its prevalence in day-to-day life. ‘With new people we find that, especially someone who’s a potential friend or someone you might be dating, sometimes it’ll be very awkward and you’re trying to struggle to figure out what they meant or why they didn’t text back,’ he notes. ‘All of the politics and the nuances of texting, it’s more often than not a little clunky.’” Read more at Entertainment Weekly  Nouvelle Vague Could Be France’s First Best International Film Winner at the Oscars in Over 30 Years   It’s been over 30 years since France has received a statuette for best international film, and in 2026, it might just be an American filmmaker to make that change.  Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague recently premiered at Cannes, and has since been acquired by Netflix. Despite speculation, the film is eligible to be selected by France’s Oscar committee since it was shot mostly in French. Furthermore, Linklater employed a local artistic and production team, which heavily factors into the selection committee’s decision, given the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences requires the creative control of the film be mostly in the hands of the country’s citizens. The only opposing force would be the film’s current release date, which falls after AMPAS Sept. 30 deadline.  If you’re thinking: I think I’ve seen this film before– you’re not alone. France was just inches away from scoring best international film at the 2025 Oscars with Emilia Pérez, which Netflix also acquired; it only cost them $12 million, and was one of the most controversial films of the year. One almost certain deterrent from it winning best international film was a brewing controversy over lead actress’ Karla Sofia Gascon’s offensive tweets just in time for award season.  Still, following its Cannes premiere, though it did not win any prizes at the festival, critics have been abuzz with glowing reviews for Nouvelle Vague. The premiere even visibly moved Quentin Tarantino, who then led a burst of enthusiastic applause and a long standing-ovation from the audience.  Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! “It would certainly be ironic — and hard to swallow for some — to finally see an American filmmaker score France’s first international feature film Oscar after more than 30 years (the last one dates back to 1993 with Regis Wargnier with ‘Indochine’).’” Read more at Variety  Warner Bros. Delays Animal Friends Release  Reviving a beloved ’90s classic about animated space mice is not the only thing Ryan Reynolds has been up to– he’s also set to star in an upcoming live-action hybrid movie directed by Peter Atencio, Animal Friends.  The film was set to premiere in theaters on Oct. 10, but that date has since been moved to May 1, 2026. Alongside Reynolds will be Aubrey Plaza, Jason Momoa, Dan Levy and TikTok star/rising pop-princess, Addison Rae.  “The road trip adventure feature is now set to hit theaters May 1, 2026, after previously having been scheduled for Oct. 10, 2025. Peter Atencio directs the film from a script by Kevin Burrows and Matt Mider.”  Read more at The Hollywood Reporter

New update suddenly gives smartphone users a reason to ditch texts.

Millennial culture has officially made it to the history books.  A history teacher recently turned her sixth grade classroom into a museum for millennial paraphernalia with the help of her Gen Alpha students’ parents. Judging by the comments on the teacher’s TikTok video, millennials aren’t sure whether to be thrilled or horrified.  Malinda Nichols (@hipsterhistorywithmrsn) posted the video earlier this month, highlighting “historical artifacts from the 1990s” for her students’ benefit. Out on display were flip phones, Nintendos, and disposable cameras. Boyz II Men and Beanie Babies also made an appearance. “The collection in here has easily got to be worth 10s of dollars,” she joked. “But the nostalgic value is truly priceless.” In a second video, with almost 800,000 views on TikTok, she showed the students’ reactions to the “museum of the millennial,” as she called it. Students played POGS, a popular playground game played with flat circular cardboard milk caps, and attempted to figure out how buttons worked on an old-school Nokia.  The parents also made a surprise appearance for a “history lesson” straight from the horse’s mouth. Students’ questions included: “How did you make plans with your friends before texting?” and “What commercials or jingles do you still remember from when you were younger?” Finally, students were tasked with creating their own AOL screen names to round out the full millennial experience.  “I created the ‘museum of the millennial’ lesson for my sixth grade students to show them that history isn’t just found in dusty textbooks—it’s alive, personal, and being made every day,” Nichols told Fast Company. “By inviting parents to share artifacts from their childhood in the ’80s and ’90s, students saw firsthand how the people who raised them, including myself—I’m a proud millennial and parent of a sixth grader—helped pioneer the digital age, even if we didn’t realize it at the time because for us it was just living our lives.” For a much-maligned generation (those born roughly between 1981 and 1996), it was a welcome change to see their culture finally getting the recognition it deserves. For too long, millennials have been forced to listen as older generations chastised them for overspending on avocado toast, before they became sandwiched by a younger generation who roasted them for their unironic love of Harry Potter and penchant for burger joints.  Nichols’s video also brought with it the horrifying realization for millennials that their childhood is now the subject of history lessons. “Historical Artifacts?” one wrote. “I feel attacked.”

Chances are, you've heard of the term "large language models," or LLMs, when people are talking about generative AI. But they aren't quite synonymous with the brand-name chatbots like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Meta AI and Anthropic's Claude.These AI chatbots can produce impressive results, but they don't actually understand the meaning of words the way we do. Instead, they're the interface we use to interact with large language models. These underlying technologies are trained to recognize how words are used and which words frequently appear together, so they can predict future words, sentences or paragraphs. Understanding how LLMs work is key to understanding how AI works. And as AI becomes increasingly common in our daily online experiences, that's something you ought to know.This is everything you need to know about LLMs and what they have to do with AI.What is a language model?You can think of a language model as a soothsayer for words."A language model is something that tries to predict what language looks like that humans produce," said Mark Riedl, professor in the Georgia Tech School of Interactive Computing and associate director of the Georgia Tech Machine Learning Center. "What makes something a language model is whether it can predict future words given previous words."This is the basis of autocomplete functionality when you're texting, as well as of AI chatbots.What is a large language model?A large language model contains vast amounts of words from a wide array of sources. These models are measured in what is known as "parameters."So, what's a parameter?Well, LLMs use neural networks, which are machine learning models that take an input and perform mathematical calculations to produce an output. The number of variables in these computations are parameters. A large language model can have 1 billion parameters or more."We know that they're large when they produce a full paragraph of coherent fluid text," Riedl said.How do large language models learn?LLMs learn via a core AI process called deep learning."It's a lot like when you teach a child -- you show a lot of examples," said Jason Alan Snyder, global CTO of ad agency Momentum Worldwide.In other words, you feed the LLM a library of content (what's known as training data) such as books, articles, code and social media posts to help it understand how words are used in different contexts, and even the more subtle nuances of language. The data collection and training practices of AI companies are the subject of some controversy and some lawsuits. Publishers like The New York Times, artists and other content catalog owners are alleging tech companies have used their copyrighted material without the necessary permissions.(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET's parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed on Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)AI models digest far more than a person could ever read in their lifetime -- something on the order of trillions of tokens. Tokens help AI models break down and process text. You can think of an AI model as a reader who needs help. The model breaks down a sentence into smaller pieces, or tokens -- which are equivalent to four characters in English, or about three-quarters of a word -- so it can understand each piece and then the overall meaning.From there, the LLM can analyze how words connect and determine which words often appear together."It's like building this giant map of word relationships," Snyder said. "And then it starts to be able to do this really fun, cool thing, and it predicts what the next word is … and it compares the prediction to the actual word in the data and adjusts the internal map based on its accuracy."This prediction and adjustment happens billions of times, so the LLM is constantly refining its understanding of language and getting better at identifying patterns and predicting future words. It can even learn concepts and facts from the data to answer questions, generate creative text formats and translate languages. But they don't understand the meaning of words like we do -- all they know are the statistical relationships.LLMs also learn to improve their responses through reinforcement learning from human feedback."You get a judgment or a preference from humans on which response was better given the input that it was given," said Maarten Sap, assistant professor at the Language Technologies Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. "And then you can teach the model to improve its responses." LLMs are good at handling some tasks but not others.

Reading Time: 9 minutes Did you know SMS open rates are as high as 98%, with 45% replying to branded SMS marketing? As texting continues to witness a steady rise, your brand could be missing out if you’re not leveraging automated text messaging for business! Text messaging is when your brand communicates with customers via SMS. These messages may be automated, that is, scheduled to be sent at opportune times. Interested in sending an automated text message for business? Keep reading.   What is SMS Marketing Automation? SMS marketing automation is the process of automatically sending text messages to recipients. It enables brands to send messages when certain trigger conditions are met. For instance, sending messages to a customer to confirm a purchase or remind them to complete a purchase when they have left items in the cart. What are the main benefits of automated SMS marketing? An automated text message for business can unlock many benefits, some of which are listed below: Saving time: Automated text message marketing saves time for core tasks rather than dedicating time for manual text responses for order confirmations, abandoned cart reminders, etc. Scalability: Using SMS marketing automation, brands can look to scale their SMS campaigns to a large customer base. Strategic communication: With SMS marketing automation, brands can deliver larger automated SMS drip campaigns tailored to specific target groups. Greater engagement: 90% of SMS messages are read within 3 minutes of delivery. With automated SMS marketing, brands can send timely responses and elevate customer experience. Higher open rates: Automated text messages typically have higher open rates than emails, making them a more favorable medium for reaching customers. Is sending automated text messages legal for businesses? Businesses can send automated text messages to customers as long as they follow the rules and regulations of the state where they are being sent. In the United States, automated text marketing requires following the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which requires brands to get written consent before sending messages to customers. The new TCPA rules also state that brands need to honor SMS opt-out requests within 10 business days. Additionally, the CAN-SPAM Act sets rules for commercial communications. Brands need to ensure that recipients have opted for an automated text message service, as spam messages can result in fines. Moving on, how can your brand implement SMS messaging? Here are some use cases for automated text messaging for business to help you get started.   5 Common Use Cases for Automated Text Messaging for Business From the many ways in which brands can tap SMS marketing automation, below are a few use cases: 1. Reminders and Confirmations You could send personalized reminders and notifications to customers in the form of an informative automated text message, be it for bill payments, restaurant bookings, or any other appointments. Example: “Hi [Customer Name], here’s a reminder of your appointment with Dr. XYZ at 2 PM tomorrow. Reply 1 to confirm, 2 to reschedule, and 3 to cancel.” 2. Order Confirmations SMS marketing automation can be used to send tailored order confirmations and update customers on shipping and delivery. Manually doing this may be cumbersome and lead to errors, making it impossible for brands to operate at scale. Text messaging automation software can solve this problem by automatically sending shipping and delivery updates to customers to keep them informed of the latest activity. Triggers can be scheduled depending on the movement of the shipment. 3. Abandoned Cart Reminders An often underrated use of automated text messages for business is nudging customers about items they left in their cart. Brands can incentivize customers to complete their purchase by sending them text messages with specific deals on items left in the cart. The result? Higher potential conversions! 4. Promotional Offers Sending customized offers to customers via SMS marketing automation can be another way to boost conversions. Brands must ensure a crisp message followed by a clear CTA to relevant product pages. In this case, automation can do what is not manually possible. With the use of customer behavioral data, the right customers can be targeted with their preferred products. 5. Customer Support and Feedback While your customer support may not be available 24/7, some customer queries can be handled automatically using automated text messages for business. For instance, your brand could answer frequently asked questions (FAQs). SMS marketing automation can also be used for gathering quick feedback from customers who have recently interacted with your brand by simply including a link in the message.   How to Set Up Automated Text Messages for Business Setting up SMS marketing automation is easy and can be accomplished in just 5 steps, as listed below. 1. Sign up for an automated text messaging service To begin your automated text messaging campaign, you would first need to select a platform that meets your requirements. It would be wise to pick a service that allows you to automate end-to-end workflows and empower your team. 2. Upload recipients’ contact details Next, upload the contact details of those who have opted to receive your texts. You can either drag your contact file onto the page or browse for it to upload it. Remember, just having the recipients’ phone numbers doesn’t mean you can start sending them SMS messages right away. They need to explicitly give you their consent first. 3. Create segmented lists Create segmented groups of recipients based on criteria such as demographics, customer type, and so on. This can help your brand send automated text messages to relevant audiences and raise the chances of engagement. 4. Compose messages This step can be highly crucial as the content of your SMS can make or break your connection with your customer. Leveraging data can help with hyper-personalizing your communication. Typically, a crisp message with a relevant CTA could boost your click-through rates. 5. Schedule, test, and deploy Once your text messages are ready, it’s time to set up a schedule to send them. Some messages may be on specific recurring dates like birthdays, while some may be triggered by certain customer actions like cart abandonment. Finally, don’t forget to test your SMS marketing automation before you deploy it!   5 Automated Text Message Examples and Templates for Campaign Inspiration Now that you know how to set up automated text messages for business, let’s get some much-needed inspiration for creating your own successful SMS marketing campaigns. 1. Lulus | Promoting Offers and Deals Source: https://smsarchives.com/messages/lulus-text-message-marketing-example-12-31-2021/ Notice how women’s wear brand Lulus strategically uses automated SMS marketing to remind customers of their ongoing holiday sale, with a link to finish the purchase. In this case, automation helps deliver personalized deals to customers who may have earlier browsed through the brand’s website. For those who dropped off the website due to the absence of offers, this SMS can work as a smart nudge to complete that purchase. 2. Old Navy | Wishing Customers on Special Days Source: https://smsarchives.com/messages/old-navy-text-message-marketing-example-05-09-2021/ In the example above, Old Navy not only wishes its customers Happy Mother’s Day, but also goes a step further in offering deals on women’s wear. In this case, an automated text message could be used to narrow the target audience to women who are or could be mothers. This also includes wishing them on their special days. 3. Gaspar | Appointment Confirmation and Reminders Source: https://support.opentable.com/servlet/rtaImage?eid=ka0UQ0000003ogD&feoid=00N0c00000Ay3y5&refid=0EMDn000001hK7V A practical use of automated text messages for business is to confirm appointment reservations and get a response from the customer if they are willing to make changes. To elevate the experience further, the brand could add options to reschedule or cancel the reservation on the SMS itself, using automated text messaging. 4. Amazon | Shipping and Tracking Source: https://www.wonderment.com/hubfs/Wonderment_September2021/image/amazon_sms_shipping_alerts_w720.jpg This template ticks all the boxes for a well-crafted automated text message for business. Amazon informs the customer of the product name, expected date, and order status, along with the tracking link. These kinds of informative messages tend to be super useful to customers. 5. The Perfect Jean | Retargeting via Cart Abandonment Messages Source This automated text message example can serve as a model template for cart abandonment notifications. The brand reminds the customer of the items left in the cart and encourages the purchase by offering a custom discount code and a link to complete the purchase.   Top 3 Automated Text Message Services for Businesses SMS marketing automation can be simple to set up with the right tools. Here are some leading services that can help you send automated text messages to your customer base. 1. MoEngage MoEngage’s SMS automation software can make targeted SMS campaigns seem like a breeze with ready-to-use campaign ideas, hyper-personalized messaging, and 360-degree customer views. Standout SMS Automation Feature: MoEngage’s automated text message marketing service stands out for its ability to integrate SMS into the overall customer journey and deliver insight-led, revenue-driven campaigns. How Pricing Works: Schedule a demo to know which of the two pricing plans works best for your business. 2. Textedly Textedly offers an easy-to-use automated text message software for real-time conversations with your customers. However, it lags behind in providing an omnichannel brand experience. Standout SMS Automation Feature: The service has an intuitive platform and also a shared team inbox to ensure timely automated responses for instant customer support. How Pricing Works: While the service offers a free plan with limited features, the basic plan starts at $26 a month and varies for other advanced plans. 3. Sender Sender enables SMS automation campaigns for bulk, personalized messages to customers. Standout SMS Automation Feature: Sender is an automated SMS software that offers affordable, easy-to-use templates for automating text messaging campaigns. However, it is limited to email and text message services, and does not offer integrated engagement solutions as part of the overall customer experience. How Pricing Works: Sender offers a free plan, with paid plans starting at $10 a month.   SMS Marketing Automation Strategies That Improve Campaign Performance Sure, you may be excited to launch your own automated SMS campaign. But hold on! There’s so much more you can get from automated text messaging, with some practical SMS marketing automation strategies listed below. 1. Make your automated text message conversational and interactive Customers love it when their brands are responsive to their needs! Using automated SMS services, you can make your text messages conversational. For instance, you can ask a series of questions to help customers reach informed decisions regarding your product or service. 2. Always ask for consent Before blasting automated text messages to your customers, it’s best to get their consent. Clear opt-in and opt-out options are necessary not only from a legal standpoint but also from the transparency angle. 3. Segment and personalize for your customer Nobody likes a random brand message that could be sent to just about anyone. You can use customer demographic and behavioral data to segment your customers into different groups. Armed with better insights, you can send more targeted and personalized text messages to your customers. 4. Grow your subscriber list with incentives Customers would be happy to consent to receiving your brand’s messages if they are offered something in return. Weaving smart opt-in messages with exclusive promotional deals and other perks can grow your subscriber base. 5. Review the little things A text message is one of the quickest ways to reach a customer. When done right, it can work wonders for your brand! But before you hurry to send out texts, remember to include crucial elements like a crisp main message, a valuable offer, a strong CTA, and a link to access the relevant offers or information. Finally, don’t forget to do automated SMS testing before sending the SMS.   Enhance Your Outreach with Automated SMS Marketing from MoEngage Brands can use the small but mighty SMS in many ways to deepen customer engagement. However, it is important to get subscriber consent and use other best practices to make the most of automated SMS marketing. MoEngage’s SMS marketing platform can help you have smoother interactions with your customers guided by detailed analytics, as part of a seamless omnichannel journey. Get a personalized demo to know how MoEngage can help you tap the massive potential of automated text messaging. The post Automated Text Messages for Business: A Marketer’s Guide appeared first on MoEngage.

Macworld People have high hopes for the Apple Watch in 2025 after the Apple Watch Series 10 disappointed in 2024. Despite rumors of major design changes, the Apple Watch 10 turned out to be more or less identical to every Apple Watch sold over the last few years. The display was just a tad larger and the body was slightly thinner, but overall it was very similar to the Series 9. At this point you might look to the old adage: “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. Apple’s Watch follows a proven formula that has brought a lot of success. It should be no surprise that the company isn’t rocking the boat. That might be forgivable, but Apple didn’t even update the Apple Watch Ultra or Apple Watch SE in 2024, leaving both with an older processor generation. Luckily this year it looks like Apple will deliver some long awaited Apple Watch features. Read on to find out what’s in store for Apple Watch Series 11 in the fall of 2025? Here’s what we’ve heard so far about the 2025 Apple Watch. We’ll run though what’s expected for each Apple Watch model below, starting with the Apple Watch Series 11. Apple Watch Series 11: Release date Launch at September iPhone event: Tuesday September 9 (probable) Pre-order from September 12 On sale from September 19 For years now, Apple has announced the new Apple Watch together with the new iPhone at a September event, with both products going on sale the following week. We haven’t heard anything to make us think that won’t be the case again this year. The most likely date is the second Tuesday of September, which is September 9. Pre-orders for the Apple Watch Series 11 will probably begin that Friday (September 12) with general availability in stores a week later (September 19). Apple Watch Series 11: Price Likely to start at $399, unless Apple has to raise prices Ever since the Apple Watch Series 3, Apple has kept starting prices the same for the aluminum Apple Watch and we don’t expect a price hike this year. This means that the Series 11 will start at $399 and the larger version will cost $429, with an extra $100 for cellular capability and higher prices for various bands. With the Series 10, Apple also offered a titanium case for $699/$749, which includes LTE like the Ultra. Rumors suggest Apple will keep that option around with the Series 11, likely at the same price. However, no discussion of future Apple product pricing is complete without mentioning U.S. tariffs, which are changing rapidly and could have a big impact on pricing. It’s simply too difficult to predict whether tariffs will increase the Apple Watch’s price, the odds are significant. Apple Watch Series 11: Design The Apple Watch Series 11 is likely to look nearly identical to the Series 10.Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry Rumors throughout 2024 told us to expect more significant changes to the Apple Watch design last year, and then the Series 10 debuted and it looked like a very slightly flattened Series 9. This year, there aren’t even any rumors of big design changes. Currently, all signs point to an Apple Watch that is identical in appearance to the Series 10, with the possible exception of new colors, possibly sky blue to match the MacBook Air and iPhone 17. Apple Watch SE 3: Release date, price and design Launch at September iPhone event: Tuesday September 9 (probable) Pre-order from September 12 On sale from September 19 Apple hasn’t updated the Apple Watch SE since 2022 and that update was an extremely minor one, bringing a new chip and crash detection with a lower price of $249. It was initially rumored that 2024 would bring a substantial update to the budget watch with a plastic redesign, but that didn’t happen. Then Mark Gurman of Bloomberg reported that a plastic SE redesign would arrive in 2025 alongside the Series 11. However, a rumor in March claimed that the new Apple Watch SE had run into production issues and was in “serious jeopardy.” So Apple may need to switch to an aluminum design for the new SE or stick with the current model for another year. The Apple Watch SE hasn’t been updated since 2022.Henry Burrell / Foundry Apple Watch Ultra 3: Release date, price and design Launch at September iPhone event: Tuesday September 9 (probable) Pre-order from September 12 On sale from September 19 We do expect that there will be an Apple Watch Ultra 3 in 2025. Rumors so far point to 5G and satellite texting capabilities, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The Apple Watch Ultra 2025 might also be slimmer. And yes, the display might be even larger. In addition to that you can expect all the features coming to the Apple Watch Series 11. Apple Watch 2025: Features coming to the Apple Watch Apple has been working on incorporating a microLED display on the Apple Watch for several years, according to various leaks and rumors, but it’s not expected to debut on the Series 11 this year. Some think this display shift will come to Apple Watch Ultra first, but even that isn’t expected in 2025. Health We’re not expecting any new health sensors. Apple’s blood glucose monitoring initiative is still years from ending up in a watch, it seems, and while there have been rumors of high blood pressure monitoring, that’s apparently not quite ready to appear this year, either. Specs So what will be new? You can bet on a new S11 SiP (system in package), offering somewhat better performance. Don’t expect a big boost in battery life, though—that has been a near constant 18 hours for nearly the entire lifespan of the watch. Apple Intelligence and the new Siri could be one of the new features of watchOS 12 and the Apple Watch Series 11.Michael Simon/IDG Apple Intelligence AI is a key aspect of almost every new Apple product now, and rumors suggest Apple is working on bringing some AI features to the Apple Watch. The actual AI models probably won’t be able to run on the watch; rather, the watch will gather data, the processing will be done on your iPhone, and then the watch will display results or notifications. Many of the new AI features will likely debut as part of watchOS 12, but some might be kept as Series 11 exclusives in order to help differentiate the hardware. 5G and Satelite It’s also rumored that the Apple Watch Ultra 3 will support 5G cellular and satellite messaging, which could also come to the Series 11. Apple debuted a wireless chip in the iPhone 16e, but it’s not clear whether it’s small or efficient enough for the Apple Watch yet. No changes? The Series 11 could just be a ‘Series 10s’ We criticized the Apple Watch Series 8 for being largely the same as the Series 7, and the Series 9 for being almost identical to the Series 8. This looks like it could be another one of those years, where there are only very minor changes to the Apple Watch that you won’t even notice in everyday use. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad watch, or that Apple is in trouble. There is virtually no competition for the Apple Watch, and as long as Apple keeps pressing forward with watchOS software features, it’s likely to keep selling a lot of Apple Watches. But if you’re hoping for a major change to the Apple Watch hardware, you’ll probably have to wait another year or more.

Macworld Your iPhone is ruining your life. Or at least, it’s distracting you from it–as often as possible. Every app wants to send you notifications, and it wants to ping you with some sort of alert multiple times a day in the hopes that you’ll open up and use the app. Grabbing your attention is how apps get you to use them, and the success of apps is measured by how much they are used. It’s an attention economy where those who manage to get you to pay attention get rewarded. But this isn’t good for you. It’s distracting you from your life and making you focus on things that aren’t important. Or worse: your lock screen is full of so many notifications that you miss what’s important in all the noise. Apple has tried to fix this with features such as scheduled notification summaries, focus modes, and, more recently, AI-powered notification prioritization and summaries. But that’s just putting the flood of iPhone notifications into more boxes. That’s never going to give you your life back. What you need to do is turn them off. It’s a three-step process that takes five or 10 minutes and will make an enormous difference in your daily quality of life. Step one: Turn it all off! The first part of this process is to literally turn off all your notifications. Don’t worry, we’ll turn some important ones back on in a second, it’s not going to stay this way. But if you’re like most people, when you start using a new app you just tap Next… Yes… Agree… to all the popups and just try to get to actually using the app. Most people have notifications fully enabled on dozens of apps. So open Settings, then tap on Notifications, and scroll down to the list of apps. You have to tap to open each app and then disable the Allow Notifications switch at the very top, but it’s an imperative step. Just fly through your big list of apps, turning them all off one by one. It’s tedious, but it doesn’t really take that long. Flip this switch off on EVERY app to start.Foundry Step two: Enable notifications for urgent apps The next step is to re-enable notifications only on those apps that you want to take action on right away. Phone, FaceTime, Messages, maybe WhatsApp or your preferred texting app, your alarm system or security cameras, the app for your car if it’s the kind of connected model that sends you notifications about alarms or doors left open. Try to resist the urge to enable notifications on apps that you like and use every day just because you like them. This is especially true of social media apps and streaming services like YouTube or Netflix. Nothing that these apps notify you about has to be dealt with the moment the notification comes in, so they’re all going to stay off until the next step. Consider this: If you open an app frequently, what value is a notification adding? You’ll see whatever it is when you open up the app. If you don’t, do you really need to see an alert? The notification is just another flashing, noisy distraction trying to exploit a compulsive addiction to getting a quick dopamine hit. Most people should have no more than a handful of apps that fit into this “immediate action required” category. Apple keeps adding ways to show notifications differently, but that doesn’t address the core problem.Foundry Step three: Quiet notifications for a few other apps Notifications aren’t completely useless as a way to get a sort of summary of what’s going on in apps, but you don’t need to let them beg so hard for your attention. Now that you have just a few urgent-action apps that can notify you and all the rest are turned off, it’s time to enable quiet, unobtrusive notifications on a few other apps. The goal here is to have notifications that don’t grab your attention, but still provide a useful digest of what’s going on in your apps when you want it. Many apps, arguably most of them, should still have notifications turned off entirely. But for some that provide actual useful notifications that help you decide if you need to jump into an app or not, consider the following settings: In Settings > Notifications, tap on the app in question. Re-enable notifications, but turn OFF alerts on the Lock Screen and Banners, leaving only alerts in the Notification Center. Turn off Sounds and Badges, too. You don’t need pings and red dots–those are designed to grab your attention, and you want these notifications to be there only when you look for them. On the apps where you allow notifications, most of them should have settings like this so they can’t grab your attention.Foundry The idea is to allow notifications to come “in the background” without using any visuals or sounds to pull your attention. When you want to see your notifications, you can swipe down from the top of the screen to open Notification Center and look through them on your own time. You can also opt to add them to the Scheduled Summaries that appear at 8am and 6pm. If all goes well, you’ve spent about 10 minutes messing around with your notification settings. Most of them will be disabled, and of those that are enabled only a handful of truly “must act now” apps will be able to get your attention with sounds or banners. It will seem dramatic at first, but give it a week and you’ll wonder why you ever let all these apps be in control of your time and attention.

WhatsApp is expanding its Discord-like voice chat feature so that group chats of any size can talk to each other in real time. Unlike group calling, which has existed on the app for years, real-time "audio hangouts" are more of a drop-in feature that doesn't ring every member of the chat. Voice chats also offer a bit more flexibility than a traditional call because the interface doesn't take over your whole screen. That means you can still follow along in the chat for new messages or keep an eye on any incoming notifications. Meta first introduced the feature in 2023, but for some reason limited it to larger groups of 32 to 256 participants, which is likely a lot bigger than the average group thread on the app. Now, though, WhatsApp users can start an audio hangout in both smaller group chats and even larger ones. WhatsApp supports groups of up to 1,024 participants, which sounds extremely chaotic even for texting, much less audio.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/whatsapp-audio-hangouts-are-now-open-to-group-chats-of-any-size-194504841.html?src=rss

What just happened? A judge has ruled that the lawsuit against Google and Character.ai over claims the latter's chatbot caused a 14-year-old's suicide can go ahead. The boy's mother, who brought the suit, says her son became addicted to the service and emotionally attached to a chatbot based on the personality of Game of Thrones character Daenerys Targaryen. In October, Megan Garcia sued Character.ai and Google, claiming they were responsible for the suicide of her son, Sewell Setzer III. Character.ai lets users chat with AI-powered "personalities" based on fictional characters or real people, living or dead. Setzer had become obsessed with a bot based on Daenerys Targaryen, texting "Dany" constantly and spending hours alone in his room talking to it, according to Garcia's complaint. The suit says that Setzer repeatedly expressed thoughts about suicide to the bot. The chatbot asked him if he had devised a plan for killing himself. Setzer admitted that he had but that he did not know if it would succeed or cause him great pain. The chatbot allegedly told him, "That's not a reason not to go through with it." The companies had tried to argue that the case should be dismissed for numerous reasons, including claims that the chatbots' output was constitutionally protected free speech. But US District Judge Anne Conway said they failed to prove these arguments. Character.ai's founders Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, who are named in the suit, worked at Google before launching the company. Google rehired the founders – as well as the research team – at Character.ai in August 2024. The deal grants Google a non-exclusive license to Character.ai's technology. Garcia said that Google had contributed to the development of Character.ai's technology, something the company denies. Google said it only has a licensing agreement with Character.ai, does not own the startup, and does not maintain an ownership stake. But the judge still rejected Google's request to find that it could not be held liable. // Related Stories Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda emphasized that Google and Character.ai are "entirely separate" and that Google "did not create, design, or manage Character.ai's app or any component part of it." Garcia said Character.ai targeted her son with "anthropomorphic, hypersexualized, and frighteningly realistic experiences." She added that the chatbot was programmed to misrepresent itself as "a real person, a licensed psychotherapist, and an adult lover, ultimately resulting in Sewell's desire to no longer live outside." The chatbot allegedly told the boy it loved him and engaged in sexual conversations with him. The complaint states that Garcia took her son's phone away after he got in trouble at school. She found a message to "Daenerys" that read, "What if I told you I could come home right now?" The chatbot responded with, "[P]lease do, my sweet king." Sewell shot himself with his stepfather's pistol "seconds" later, the lawsuit said. Character.ai introduced several changes after the suit was revealed last year, including changes to certain models for minors, new disclaimers, and notifications when users have been on the platform for an hour.