Tag: tech

The NYT Mini crossword might be a lot smaller than a normal crossword, but it isn’t easy. If you’re stuck with today’s crossword, we’ve got answers for you here.

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Connections is the new puzzle game from the New York Times, and it can be quite difficult. If you need a hand with solving today’s puzzle, we’re here to help.

Spoilers for Lower Decks, “Fissure Quest.”

It turns out you can have your cake and eat it.

The penultimate episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks is an exercise in box ticking for the show’s creative team. It does the grunt work of laying the table and raising the stakes for next week’s series finale. But it’s also the show’s last — for now — chance to wring a gag or two out of all those deep-cut, Extremely Online Trek in-jokes. It’s fortunate that while the episode is a little on the thin side, the stuff that’s thrown at the wall is charming enough for it not to matter.

For the second week in a row, we’re pulling focus from the lead quintet to catch up on William Boimler. (That, if your memory isn’t too sharp, is Bomiler’s transporter clone, last seen faking his death to join Section 31.) He’s now captain of the USS Anaximander on a secret mission to close up the interdimensional fissures the show has been encountering all season.

Boimler, the show’s avatar of a Star Trek fan, has been picking up stray figures from the canon during dimension hops. His crew includes T’Pol, Garak and an EMH version of Dr. Bashir, all played by their original actors.. And yes, Garak and Dr. Bashir are a married couple in this universe, because of course the show has to embrace that piece of fan lore that launched a thousand pieces of slash fiction.

The ship picks up an escape pod with Lt. Harry Kim inside, who learns most of the rest of the crew is Harries Kim as well. He’s the only one who’s ever been promoted above the rank of ensign, nodding to the rumor that longtime series head Rick Berman said someone had to be the lowest-ranked member of the crew. And / or as punishment for clashing with the production team, as outlined in an interview Wang gave in 2011.

They soon encounter an alternate universe Mariner who, unlike our version, is a timid engineer. She, however, has worked out a way to track the vessel that’s punching holes in the fabric of the universe. So the Anaximander lays a trap, only to reveal that it’s an old Enterprise-class ship called the Beagle. It’s an exploration vessel with a human and Vulcan crew, led by Lily Sloane.

Paramount+

Sloane isn’t trying to tear the universe to shreds, their universe just discovered to discover interdimensional travel ahead of warp. They’ve been leaping between universes exploring strange similar worlds, the same life and civilizations boldly… examining the differences. It’s a mission statement that outrages Boimler, who’s gorged himself on fanservice and is now looking for something, anything new to cleanse his palate.

Naturally, this is Lower Decks winking toward its own major flaw, given its reverence for ‘90s era Trek. I’ve always found it quite successful in bobbing and weaving around simply milking the audience’s ‘memberberries. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t at least complicit in the concept of serving up the same old crap, again and again.

Sloane disagrees, saying her crew looks to explore the ways in which people grow and evolve in different environments. She says she’s met several different Boimlers, all of whom have their own Mariner, as their connection endures across the universes. And that exploration isn’t just about exploring what’s beyond us but finding what’s true inside us. That’s a journey that can be just as perilous, and rewarding, as traveling to the furthest edges of the universe.

Kim, outraged at his namesakes’ stalled careers, steals the Beagle with plans to return to his own dimension. The Anaximander pursues, and while the other Kims mutiny and beam back, the Beagle successfully makes a jump but explodes in the process. That sends a huge wave of energy that will wipe out every universe in existence unless it’s dumped in a single place. Thankfully, Boimler knows where to send it — to his transporter twin and the crew of the Cerritos.

See you next week for the finale.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/star-trek-lower-decks-sets-up-its-finale-elbowing-its-own-ribs-140054114.html?src=rss

Toyota just introduced a new compact electric SUV and dug into the past for inspiration. The new Urban Cruiser EV borrows its name for a car that first came along in the early 2000s and is based on the company’s Urban SUV Concept unveiled last year. It looks like it’s designed to compete with Volvo’s EX30 and much like that vehicle, will come with a number of battery and drive options.

To give you an idea of size, the Urban Cruiser will be slightly larger than Toyota’s hybrid compact SUV, the Yaris Cross. It’ll be built on a new battery electric vehicle (BEV) platform that frees up extra space for the battery and occupants. 

It’ll come with two battery pack options, 49kWh and 61kWh, a bit smaller than the EX30’s offerings (51kWh and 69kWh). The smaller pack supports up to 144 HP and 140 pound feet, while the larger pack option ups that to 174 HP and the same torque. If you upgrade to the dual-motor system, you’ll see 184 HP and 221 pound feet of torque. Those power levels are far less than the EX30, which offers 268 HP as standard and a wild 422 HP on the twin-motor performance version. 

Toyota

The Urban Cruiser will offer active safety features like adaptive cruise, active collision avoidance and lane-departure warning, along with a 360 degree camera. Inside, you’ll get a 10.1-inch infotainment display along with a 10.25-inch driver’s display, all in one unit. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto will be standard.

Toyota

Price and range have yet to be revealed, but Toyota will be in tough against the much more powerful Volvo EX30 if the sticker isn’t substantially lower. The Urban Cruiser is also arguably less attractive as well. It’s set to arrive in the UK and elsewhere in Europe in the third quarter next year. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/toyota-takes-on-volvos-ex30-with-the-urban-cruiser-compact-electric-suv-143041000.html?src=rss

The American Civil Liberties Association (ACLU) is sounding a warning about the use of AI in creating police reports, saying the tech could produce errors that affect evidence and court cases. The nonprofit highlighted the dangers of the tech in a white paper, following news that police departments in California are using a program called Draft One from Axon to transcribe body camera recording and create a first draft of police reports. 

One police department in Fresno said that it’s using Draft One under a pilot program, but only for misdemeanor reports. “It’s nothing more than a template,” deputy chief Rob Beckwith told Industry Insider. “It’s not designed to have an officer push a button and generate a report.” He said that the department has seen any errors with transcriptions and that it consulted with the Fresno County DA’s office in training the force,

However, the ACLU noted four issues with the use of AI. First off, it said that AI is “quirky and unreliable and prone to making up fact… [and] is also biased.” Secondly, it said that an officer’s memories of an incident should be memorialized “before they are contaminated by an AI’s body camera based storytelling.” It added that if a police report is just an AI rehash of body camera video, certain facts might be omitted and it may even allow officers to lie if they did something illegal that wasn’t captured on camera. 

The third point was around transparency, as the public needs to understand exactly how it works based on analysis by independent experts, according to the ACLU. Defendants in criminal cases also need to be able to interrogate the evidence, “yet much of the operation of these systems remains mysterious.” Finally, the group noted that the use of AI transcriptions might remove accountability around the use of discretionary power. “For these reasons, the ACLU does not believe police departments should allow officers to use AI to generate draft police reports,” it said.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/aclu-highlights-the-rise-of-ai-generated-police-reports–what-could-go-wrong-133030452.html?src=rss

United Airlines announced that it is integrating the Share Item Location feature from Apple into its mobile app. This development could make it easier to track down baggage equipped with AirTags or a Find My network accessory when it somehow winds up in Paris rather than arriving with you in Perth.

The United integration will allow passengers to send information about their bag’s location directly to the company’s support staff in the mobile app. If a traveler isn’t using the United app and their bag takes a detour, they will receive a text notification from the airline prompting them to submit a Share Item Location report.

Share Item Location is part of Apple’s iOS 18.2, which just began rolling out this week. When the resource was initially introduced in the public beta, air transport tech company SITA said that it would use the feature in its WorldTracer system for tracking airline baggage, so this isn’t the first time travel brands are realizing the potential of Share Item Location. However, it will only be available to customers who are using an iPhone running at least iOS 18.2.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/united-airlines-will-integrate-apples-share-item-location-feature-into-its-mobile-app-130049823.html?src=rss

There are way too many online services and subscriptions to keep track of these days, but the flip side is there’s a tool for just about everything. We’ve pulled together some of our favorite digital gifts and subscriptions, including time-tested music, video and gaming services as well as tools to clear your mental space and learn new skills. There are also a few subscriptions here that provide ongoing, IRL deliveries, if you think your giftee will appreciate the nostalgic charm of a physical object.

Gaming subscriptions

Game consoles are certainly among the most popular gift ideas this time of year. If you know someone who’s been so good that they’re getting a new Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X/S, one of these subscriptions will make their shiny toy immediately playable out of the box.

A $20/month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription offers hundreds of games from all periods of Xbox history that can be played on the Xbox or PC; many of them can be streamed to phones and tablets as well. It also includes EA Play, which opens up access to even more games. Perhaps the best part of Xbox Game Pass, though, is that it offers access to first-party Xbox Game Studios titles the day they’re released, like Starfield, Forza Motorsport and the just-released Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.

Nintendo has two tiers of its Switch Online plan. The basic $20 / year plan unlocks online play, more than 100 Game Boy, NES and Super NES games and cloud backups of your saved games as well as the occasional special offers. The $50 “expansion pack” adds a collection of N64, Game Boy Advance and Sega Genesis games as well as some DLC for games like Mario Kart 8, Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Splatoon 2.

Finally, Sony’s PlayStation Plus plan comes in three tiers, but the middle “Extra” plan ($135/year) is probably best for most gamers. In addition to cloud storage for saves, online multiplayer support and a couple of free games for your library every month, you get access to the PlayStation Plus catalog, which includes more than 400 PS4 and PS5 games. There are a number of heavy hitters here, including The Last of Us Part I, Ghost of Tsushima, Death Stranding, Resident Evil 3 Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Returnal as well as lower-profile hits and indie games like Dave the Diver, Animal Well, Return to Monkey Island and Humanity. If you know someone who loves older games though, the “Premium” tier ($160 / year) adds a bunch of titles from the PS1, PS2 and PS3 catalogs as well as perks like game trials and PS5 game streaming from the cloud.

Check out the rest of our gift ideas here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-best-subscription-gifts-to-send-your-friends-and-family-141830878.html?src=rss

After a particularly lean week for tech news, yesterday exploded. We’ve got Google’s next-generation AI model, Gemini 2.0, a barrage of games to intrigue us in 2025, MasterClass is going AI and, finally, Apple’s most headline-grabbing AI tricks and features broke cover, built into the latest iOS update.

That’s what I want to kick off with. A lot of features in iOS 18.2 are only for the iPhone 15 Pro, 16 and 16 Pro, which pack the necessary chip smarts to run Apple Intelligence. (Access is also limited to users in the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the UK for now.)

Image Playground, available as a standalone app and through Messages, can generate image suggestions based on your text prompts or contents of your conversations. You can use a photo from your iPhone’s camera roll as a starting point. Note Image Playground can’t produce photorealistic images of people. That’s by design.

Then there’s Genmoji, to make your own custom emoji. Tap the new Genmoji button and enter a description of the character you want to make. You can even type the name of a contact, and contextually, it’ll ask if you want to use photos of that person (if you have them in your photos) to generate the emoji.

Both Siri and Writing Tools can now call on ChatGPT for assistance, although devices will always ask permission before doing so. 

Anyway, back to creating an entire library of Genmoji, featuring… me.

— Mat Smith

The biggest tech stories you missed

• Apple finally launches its multi-track recording tool for Voice Memos

• The Pokémon Company is teaming up with Wallace and Gromit studio Aardman on a mystery project

• Astro Bot is getting a free holiday-themed bonus level

• Judge rejects The Onion’s bid for Infowars

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Gemini 2.0 is Google’s most capable AI model yet and available to preview today

Try the lightweight Flash version in the Gemini web app.

Almost exactly a week after OpenAI made its o1 model available to the public, Google is offering a preview of its next-gen Gemini 2.0 model. The company says 2.0 can offer native support for image and audio output. Rather than starting today’s preview by offering its most advanced version of the model, Gemini 2.0 Pro, the search giant is instead kicking things off with 2.0 Flash. As of today, the more efficient (and affordable) model is available to all Gemini users. If you want to try it yourself, you can enable Gemini 2.0 from the dropdown menu in the Gemini web client.

Alongside today’s announcement of Gemini 2.0, the company also announced Deep Research, a new tool that uses Gemini 1.5 Pro’s long-context capabilities to write reports on complicated subjects.

Continue reading.

Xbox previews cloud streaming of games you own on consoles

It’s a beta test for now.

Microsoft has started a beta test to finally bring cloud streaming to Xbox consoles. Participants in the Alpha Skip-Ahead and Alpha tiers of the Xbox Insiders program can start using this feature now on their Xbox Series X|S and even Xbox One consoles. There are still some caveats on the feature. First, it’s limited to Game Pass Ultimate members. Second, the game needs to support cloud streaming. There’s a shortlist of titles in the program for now, but it includes Baldur’s Gate 3, Balatro, Cyberpunk 2077, Animal Well, Stray and the first six Final Fantasy games.

Continue reading.

MasterClass On Call gives you access to AI copies of its experts

Ramseybot, engage.

MasterClass

MasterClass is expanding beyond prerecorded video lessons to offer on-demand mentorship from some of its most popular celebrity instructors. And if you’re wondering how the company has gotten some of the busiest people on the planet to field your questions, surprise! It’s AI. On Call is limited to two personas at launch: former FBI hostage negotiator Chris Voss and University of Berkeley neuroscientist Dr. Matt Walker. In the future, MasterClass says it will offer many more personas, like Gordon Ramsay, Mark Cuban, Bill Nye and LeVar Burton.

Continue reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-121531673.html?src=rss

Hackers tried to access user data, but it’s unclear if they succeeded.