When Netflix introduced its ad-supported tier in late 2022, it wasn’t exactly a surprise. Other mainstream streaming services had been widely adopting the strategy, much to viewers’ protests. Now, Netflix has shared some data that indicates that while many might object to an ad-supported tier, they’re watching it anyway. 20 million new monthly active users Netflix says its ad-supported tier now has 94 million monthly active users, up more than 20 million since last November. That’s a massive leap in just six months, signaling that price-conscious viewers might be flocking to the cheaper plan, which currently costs /month. According to Amy Reinhard, the company’s president of advertising, the ad model isn’t just working. It’s actually outperforming expectations. “When you compare us to our competitors, attention starts higher and ends much higher,” she said. Profitability alone doesn’t merit praise. Oil companies are profitable. Health insurance companies are profitable. Vulture capital companies are profitable. Private prisons are profitable.I wouldn’t watch Netflix with ads if they offered it to me for free. View all comments Reinhard also claimed that viewers are engaging with mid-roll ads just as much as they do with the content itself, although it wasn’t clear how Netflix measured this data point. Netflix added that the ad-supported tier now reaches more U.S. viewers aged 18 to 34 than any broadcast or cable network. A clear signal to advertisers that Netflix is no longer just competing with streamers, but with traditional TV itself when it comes to this demographic. Up next Netflix’s numbers may be the clearest signal yet that ad-supported streaming actually works. At least, for streamers. With nearly 100 million users now engaging with ads, other platforms might feel more encouraged to follow suit more aggressively. Disney+, HBO Max, Peacock, and other mainstream streaming services already offer cheaper ad tiers. Still, as subscriber growth slows, they might resort to a more heavy-handed approach, now that Netflix has signaled there’s a large and willing audiencewaiting on the other side. Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed.  FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel #you #hate #ads #netflix #have

Music-sharing platform SoundCloud is saying it “has never used artist content to train AI models,” and that it’s “making a formal commitment that any use of AI on SoundCloud will be based on consent, transparency, and artist control.” The update comes several days after artists reported that changes made last year to its terms of use could mean it reserved the right to use their music and other content to train generative AI tools.“The language in the Terms of Use was too broad and wasn’t clear enough. It created confusion, and that’s on us,” writes SoundCloud CEO Eliah Seton.The terms that SoundCloud is currently using were updated in February last year with text including this passage:In the absence of a separate agreement that states otherwise, You explicitly agree that your Content may be used to inform, train, develop or serve as input to artificial intelligence or machine intelligence technologies or services as part of and for providing the services.”But Seton says that “in the coming weeks,” that line will be replaced with this:We will not use Your Content to train generative AI models that aim to replicate or synthesize your voice, music, or likeness without your explicit consent, which must be affirmatively provided through an opt-in mechanism.Seton reiterates that SoundCloud has never used member content to train AI, including large language models, for music creation or to mimic or replace members’ work. And, echoing what a SoundCloud spokesperson told The Verge in an email over the weekend, Seton says if the company does use generative AI, it “may make this opportunity available to our human artists with their explicit consent, via an opt-in mechanism.”Ed Newton-Rex, the tech ethicist who first discovered the change, isn’t satisfied with the changes. In an X post, he says the tweaked language could still allow for “models trained on your work that might not directly replicate your style but that still compete with you in the market.” According to Rex, “If they actually want to address concerns, the change required is simple. It should just read “We will not use Your Content to train generative AI models without your explicit consent.” SoundCloud did not immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.See More: #soundcloud #changes #its #tos #again

Music-sharing platform SoundCloud is saying it “has never used artist content to train AI models,” and that it’s “making a formal commitment that any use of AI on SoundCloud will be based on consent, transparency, and artist control.” The update comes several days after artists reported that changes made last year to its terms of use could mean it reserved the right to use their music and other content to train generative AI tools.“The language in the Terms of Use was too broad and wasn’t clear enough. It created confusion, and that’s on us,” writes SoundCloud CEO Eliah Seton.The terms that SoundCloud is currently using were updated in February last year with text including this passage:In the absence of a separate agreement that states otherwise, You explicitly agree that your Content may be used to inform, train, develop or serve as input to artificial intelligence or machine intelligence technologies or services as part of and for providing the services.”But Seton says that “in the coming weeks,” that line will be replaced with this:We will not use Your Content to train generative AI models that aim to replicate or synthesize your voice, music, or likeness without your explicit consent, which must be affirmatively provided through an opt-in mechanism.Seton reiterates that SoundCloud has never used member content to train AI, including large language models, for music creation or to mimic or replace members’ work. And, echoing what a SoundCloud spokesperson told The Verge in an email over the weekend, Seton says if the company does use generative AI, it “may make this opportunity available to our human artists with their explicit consent, via an opt-in mechanism.”Ed Newton-Rex, the tech ethicist who first discovered the change, isn’t satisfied with the changes. In an X post, he says the tweaked language could still allow for “models trained on your work that might not directly replicate your style but that still compete with you in the market.” According to Rex, “If they actually want to address concerns, the change required is simple. It should just read “We will not use Your Content to train generative AI models without your explicit consent.” SoundCloud did not immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.See More: #soundcloud #changes #its #tos #again

Three compounds in peppers appear to lessen their perceived spiciness. Credit: Deposit Photos / David Kadlec Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Hot peppers aren’t for everyone, but that’s where the Scoville scale comes in handy. The scale is named after American pharmacist Wilbur Scoville, who developed the pepper spiciness test in 1912. To determine a rating, an exact amount of dried pepper is dissolved in alcohol to extract its capsaicinoids, the group of compounds responsible for all that heat. This solution is then diluted with sugar water and assessed by a trained panel of specialists. To get a sense of the spectrum, bell peppers rank around a 0 on Scoville Heat Units, while notorious hybrids like the Carolina reaper measure as much as 2,500,000 SHUs. But even the Carolina reaper pales in comparison to Pepper X, the Guinness World Record holder for hottest hot pepper, ranking in at a bear spray-like 2,693,000 SHUs. As you may have already worried, even a trained human taste tester can offer subjective assessments, making the Scoville scale more of an approximation than a science. Sometimes a highly rated pepper feels like a dud, or what should be a moderate jalapeno results in gulping down multiple glasses of milk. But even modern methodologies based on high-performance liquid chromatographycan rate peppers in ways that confound a sweating hot sauce enthusiast. If the capsaicinoids—particularly capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin—are tallied accurately, then why the varying perceived heat levels? That’s what a team of researchers recently set out to determine. Their conclusions, published in the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, identifies a trio of separate compounds that can essentially function as an “anti-spice” weapon. And the ramifications go far beyond the palette. To get to the bottom of the spice mystery, experts at The Ohio State University collected powdered samples from 10 pepper varieties including serrano, Scotch bonnet, and Chile de árbol. They then measured each fruit’s capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin levels using a process known as liquid chromatography mass spectrometry. A trained group of taste testers next tried each pepper powder after mixing them into tomato juice. Don’t worry—no volunteers were harmed during the experiment. Instead, the concoctions featured just enough of each respective powder to bring the heat up to 800 SHU. That’s around the spice of a Cuban pepper, but less than a poblano. While each sample contained the same levels of capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin, participants reported a significantly wide range of perceived heat across the 10 peppers. Their hot takesimplied more than just the capsaicinoids were at play. Researchers then ran multiple more chemical composition analyses including nuclear magnetic resonance imaging to ultimately pinpoint another five naturally occurring compounds suspected of influencing each pepper’s perceived spice level. The team next asked another group of taste testers to judge whether those compounds altered capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin pungency, either on their own or in combination with one another. Scientists ultimately determined that while three of those compounds—capsianoside I, roseoside, and gingerglycolipid A—reduced intensity, they didn’t do so in combination with one another. Notably, none of them also offered a discernible flavor when mixed into water. According to study corresponding author Devin Peterson, these newly identified compounds can serve as key additives to fine-tune everyday cuisine. “These advancements could enable the customization of desirable spicy flavor profiles or lead to the creation of a household ingredient designed to tone down excessive heat in dishes—the anti-spice,” Peterson said in an accompanying statement. The possibilities extend far beyond the kitchen. Aside from food customization, pharmaceutical designers may soon turn to capsianoside I, roseoside, and gingerglycolipid A while creating new medications and treatments. Peterson suggests “significant medical potential” could come by leveraging these compounds’ ability to reduce perceived discomfort into novel non-opioid analgesic agents for managing pain In the meantime, the new study serves as a good reminder to always take Scoville levels with a grain of salt—not that sodium would help ease unintended pepper pains, of course. #scientists #discover #why #some #hot

The tiny frog still packs a colourful punchAlexander Tamanini Mônico Resplendent with its blue stripes and golden legs, this newly described poison dart frog may look imposing, but it is only about the size of a thumbnail, measuring just 14 to 17 millimetres from the tip of its snout to its derrière, or cloaca. Esteban Koch at the National Institute of Amazonian Research in Manaus, Brazil, and his colleagues found the frog in the forests of the Juruá river basin in Brazil in 2023 and went back to look for further specimens in 2024. The team has now officially described it and named the species Ranitomeya aetherea. Advertisement Little is known about the frog, but there are clues about its parental care system. Koch’s team hasn’t found any large groups of tadpoles, hatched from a big clutch of eggs. Instead, they have spotted only individuals, mainly in water-filled cavities where leaves join the stem on palm-like plants called Phenakospermum guyannense. The team saw one female deposit a single egg, which suggests that eggs are laid singly, as happens in some other poison dart frogs. “It’s possible that the female goes back when the tadpole is developing and lays another unfertilised egg, so that the tadpole can eat this to get energy,” says Koch. The researchers don’t know how big the population of the frogs is, so can’t tell if it is endangered, but in the year between the two surveys, they saw there had been deforestation in the area they searched, which they accessed via a small plane and then an 8-hour boat trip on the river. “As the frog is really specific to this plant in this area, any small disturbance could be dangerous to the species,” says Koch. Unmissable news about our planet delivered straight to your inbox every month. Sign up to newsletter Journal reference:PLOS One DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0321748 Topics:amphibians #exquisite #newtoscience #frog #species #has

I tried TikTok's new AI Alive feature in the Story Camera - and it's a fun, clever way to bring photos to life. #you #can #make #photo #come

With last year’s release of iOS 18, AirPods Pro got even better. Apple added new gestures, improvements to gaming support, and more. Head below for a recap of each of these features and details on how to use each of them. Available on AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 With iOS 18, AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 users can interact with Siri and incoming notifications by nodding their heads up or down. Accept a call or reply to notifications and messages: Nod your head up and down. Decline a call or dismiss notifications and messages: Shake your head side to side. To use head gestures to interact with Siri, you’ll also need to make sure Announce Calls and Announce Notifications are enabled. Open the Settings app and choose “Notifications” and make sure the “Announce Notifications” setting is turned on. Once the “Announce Notifications” setting is enabled, here’s how to manage Head Gestures: With your AirPods connected to your iPhone, open the Settings app and tap your AirPods at the top. Scroll down and tap “Head Gestures” Toggle on the feature and choose with gesture is linked to “Accept, Reply” and “Decline, Dismiss.” Voice Isolation Available on AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 Voice Isolation is a new feature available for AirPods users that helps ensure the caller’s voice is heard in loud or windy environments. Powered by machine learning and the H2 chip inside, Apple says that this feature isolates and enhances voice quality while removing significant background noise for the listener. Note that Voice Isolation has been a feature on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac for several years. This year, however, it’s supported directly on AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4. Here’s how to enable Voice Isolation on your AirPods: While on a call, swipe down from the top of your screen to access Control Center Tap the “Controls” button at the top of the interface Tap on “Voice Isolation” Gaming improvements Available on AirPods 3, AirPods 4, AirPods Pro, and AirPods Max iOS 18 also brings Personalized Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking to gaming for the first time. To ensure this feature works for you, open the Settings app, navigate to your AirPods settings, and scroll down to “Personalized Spatial Audio.” If you haven’t previously set up this feature, you’ll be guided through a process that includes a Face ID-style scan of your ears to personalize the Spatial Audio experience. This feature applies to things like music and videos, and is now applicable to gaming thanks to iOS 18. Apple also says that iOS 18 brings support for improved voice quality, including 16-bit, 48kHz audio, for chatting with teammates while gaming with AirPods Pro 2. Latency for AirPods Pro 2 users has also been upgraded. Custom Adaptive Audio Available on AirPods Pro and AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation iOS 18 brings more granularity to the Adaptive Audio feature on AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4. For those unfamiliar, adaptive mode “blends Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency mode together to control the level of noise you hear in your headphones based on the changing noise conditions in your environment.” With iOS 18, you can now customize Adaptive Audio to better fit your needs and “allow more or less noise.” With your AirPods connected to your iPhone, open the Settings app and tap your AirPods at the top. Scroll down and tap “Adaptive Audio” Move the slider left to allow for “Less Noise” when using Adaptive Audio or to the right to allow for “More Noise.” Hearing Health Last year, Apple supercharged AirPods Pro 2 with new hearing health features. Now, you take a hearing test with your AirPods Pro to find out if you have hearing loss. You can then use AirPods Pro as a hearing aid if you have mild to moderate hearing loss.  Apple explains: With the incredible audio quality of AirPods Pro, the user’s personalized hearing profile is automatically applied to music, movies, games, and phone calls across their devices without needing to adjust any settings. This first-of-its-kind software-based Hearing Aid feature brings users the ability to fine-tune their experience at any time, making access to hearing assistance easier than ever at an approachable price point Learn more:  Best AirPods Pro accessories Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed.  FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel #airpods #keep #getting #better #how

Check Out Jupiter’s Stunning Auroras, Which Are Hundreds of Times Brighter Than Earth’s, in the James Webb Telescope’s Latest Images The infrared views, captured in 2023, shed light on the giant planet’s atmosphere and magnetosphere—but they also reveal something unexpected These observations of Jupiter’s auroraswere captured with NASA's James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera on December 25, 2023. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Ricardo Hueso, Imke de Pater, Thierry Fouchet, Leigh Fletcher, Michael H. Wong, Joseph DePasquale, Jonathan NicholsIn May 2024, powerful solar activity triggered jaw-dropping northern lights much farther south than usual, turning the sky mesmerizing shades of pink, green and purple over wide areas of the planet. But on Jupiter, auroras are hundreds of times brighter. Now, almost exactly a year since one of Earth’s most impressive light shows, researchers have released brilliant new images of Jupiter’s auroras, captured by the James Webb Space Telescopeon December 25, 2023. As detailed in a study published Monday in the journal Nature Communications, the images literally shed new light on the magnetosphere and atmosphere of our solar system’s largest planet. “What a Christmas present it was—it just blew me away!” study lead author Jonathan Nichols, a space physicist from the University of Leicester in England, says in a NASA statement. “We wanted to see how quickly the auroras change, expecting them to fade in and out ponderously, perhaps over a quarter of an hour or so. Instead, we observed the whole auroral region fizzing and popping with light, sometimes varying by the second.” Webb Captures Jupiter's Aurora Watch on On Earth, auroras occur when the sun pelts our planet with charged particles ejected in solar storms. These particles interact with gases in our upper atmosphere, making them glow in different colors. Earth’s magnetic sphere actually deflects these charged particles toward the planet’s poles—that’s why the resulting auroras are called the northern or southern lights. While solar storms contribute to auroras on Jupiter, the giant planet’s magnetic field also captures additional charged particles, such as those ejected by volcanoes on its moon Io, according to the statement. These particles get accelerated toward the poles at extreme speeds, then crash into the atmosphere, causing its gases to glow. “Think northern lights, but way bigger!” reads an X post from NASA. The JWST previously documented Jupiter’s auroras in 2022. Nichols and his colleagues analyzed infrared light emitted by a positively charged molecule called the trihydrogen cation, which can form in auroras. They revealed that the molecule’s emission fluctuates more than they’d previously theorized—an observation that, with more research, will provide insight into how Jupiter’s upper atmosphere heats up and cools down. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope's recent images of the auroras on Jupiter NASA, ESA, CSA, Jonathan Nichols, Mahdi ZamaniThe team also found something else unexpected: When they captured images at the same time in ultraviolet light with the Hubble Space Telescope, they realized the brightest infrared light imaged by JWST didn’t correspond with Hubble’s ultraviolet version. They thought the Hubble telescope would show evidence of the aurora-creating, high-energy cosmic particles slamming into Jupiter’s atmosphere—but it didn’t. “What we’re seeing is an incredibly bright afterglow with not much evidence of the original impact,” Nichols tells Mashable’s Elisha Sauers. “The explanation currently eludes us.” This suggests Jupiter had auroras without an onslaught of high-energy particles. Instead, its auroras seen by JWST might have come from a high number of very low-energy particles raining down on the atmosphere, “which was previously thought to be impossible,” Nichols adds in the statement. If that’s not the explanation, it suggests Jupiter’s atmosphere may have some dynamics that aren’t fully understood yet. Moving forward, the team plans to continue investigating this conundrum with more JWST observations and comparisons to data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday. #check #out #jupiter039s #stunning #auroras

It’s been almost 30 years since Tom Cruise first played secret agent Ethan Hunt in 1996’s Mission: Impossible. For a film based on a long-dead television show, the M:I franchise has shown remarkable staying power — and so has Cruise. To put it into perspective, consider this: In the 30 years after the first James Bond movie, Dr. No, four different men played James Bond and the fifth was about to make his debut. By the time three decades had passed, the first Bond, Sean Connery, had long since retired as the character; that was around the time he played Indiana Jones’ bumbling father in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Almost 30 years later, Tom Cruise is still playing Ethan Hunt, in Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.Mission: Impossible - The Final ReckoningParamountloading...The Final Reckoning subtitle strongly suggests this eighth Mission will conclude the franchise. Tom Cruise himself has said he wants to keep playing Ethan Hunt until he’s 80. Either way, The Final Reckoning makes for a perfect time to take stock of 30-year history of the series as a whole. The franchise has evolved quite a bit from a twisty spy thriller, to an operatic bullet ballet, to a dramedy about a spy trying to achieve the proper work-life balance, then totally shifting again into a showcase for incredible practical special effects and stunts.As a result, comparing Mission: Impossibles is a bit like comparing apples and oranges that happened to look like Tom Cruise and enjoy hanging off the sides of airplanes. Nonetheless, I did my best to rank the entire franchise from the worst to the best.Every Mission: Impossible Movie, Ranked From Worst to BestFrom the original Mission: Impossible in 1996 through The Final Reckoning in 2025, here are the eight Mission movies, ranked from worstto the best.Get our free mobile appThe Worst Photoshopped Movie PostersThese movie posters show that using Photoshop is a lot harder than it looks. #every #mission #impossible #ranked #worst