Monthly Archives: June 2024

The Ryze 360 iPad Case transforms your tablet into an elevated 4K monitor that fits in your bag

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Desktops and laptops were named for their ability to sit on desks and on laps. Tablets, on the other hand, can’t do any sitting of their own and need to be propped up via a stand. Sure, you could buy a fancy case worth hundreds of dollars that packs a keyboard, or a flimsy one that barely props your tablet up… or you could go for the Ryze 360, a stand that lets you angle AND height-adjust your iPad, and even prop it up in both landscape and portrait modes. Relying on a clever design inspired by origami, the Ryze 360 takes the term ‘stand case’ to new heights, no pun intended. Use the case to prop your iPad up at surface level, or fold the flap to give your iPad a 3-inch height boost, turning it into a makeshift monitor that you can look at without straining your neck. The Ryze 360 also has a swiveling design that lets you rotate your iPad to landscape or portrait orientations – something you wish your current iPad case-stand did.

Designer: Amanda Chan

Click Here to Buy Now: $44.91 $49.90 (Use coupon code “YANKO-UNIQ10” to get 10% off). Hurry, deal ends in 48-hours!

The Ryze 360 builds on the success of its predecessor, the Ryze. Originally designed to give the iPad its own protective case and support stand, Ryze managed to do what most stands couldn’t – elevated docking. Almost every case stand (even the one I have on my iPad Pro M2 right now) gives you the ability to rest your tablet at a variety of angles, ranging from nearly horizontal to diagonal, and nearly vertical. Ryze did that too, while allowing for one more position – docking at a height… and the Ryze 360 retains that clever ability with one more trick up its sleeve, portrait/landscape switching.

The case comes with a faux-leather PU exterior that both gives the iPad its distinct leather-bound book-like feel, while protecting it from bumps and scratches. A crease pattern on the front flap guides you into setting up the Ryze’s stand. There are 3 angles you can choose from, depending on what you use your iPad for (doodling requires a lower angle, Facetime requires a higher front-facing angle), and a special fold lets you prop your iPad up at a height, raising it to match your eye-level so you don’t bend your neck while viewing the tablet. In this elevated mode, you can also rotate your iPad freely, alternating between landscape and portrait modes depending on what you use your iPad for.

The Ryze 360 comes in four colors – black, gray, lichen green, and caramel, and is compatible with both 11″ and 13″ models of the 2024 iPad Air and iPad Pro. The tablets are protected by a polycarbonate shell on which the faux PU leather is mounted. A magnetic flap holds the front lid of the case in place, preventing it from accidentally opening on its own, while also protecting/holding the Apple Pencil Pro in place as it’s docked on the side of the iPad. The Ryze 360 starts at $49.90, but YD readers get a 10% discount using the coupon code YANKO-UNIQ10.

Click Here to Buy Now: $44.91 $49.90 (Use coupon code “YANKO-UNIQ10” to get 10% off). Hurry, deal ends in 48-hours!

The post The Ryze 360 iPad Case transforms your tablet into an elevated 4K monitor that fits in your bag first appeared on Yanko Design.

Please don’t get your news from AI chatbots

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This is your periodic reminder that AI-powered chatbots still make up things and lie with all the confidence of a GPS system telling you that the shortest way home is to drive through the lake.

My reminder comes courtesy of Nieman Lab, which ran an experiment to see if ChatGPT would provide correct links to articles from news publications it pays millions of dollars to. It turns out that ChatGPT does not. Instead, it confidently makes up entire URLs, a phenomenon that the AI industry calls “hallucinating,” a term that seems more apt for a real person high on their own bullshit.

Nieman Lab’s Andrew Deck asked the service to provide links to high-profile, exclusive stories published by 10 publishers that OpenAI has struck deals worth millions of dollars with. These included the Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, The Times (UK), Le Monde, El País, The Atlantic, The Verge, Vox, and Politico. In response, ChatGPT spat back made-up URLs that led to 404 error pages because they simply did not exist. In other words, the system was working exactly as designed: by predicting the most likely version of a story’s URL instead of actually citing the correct one. Nieman Lab did a similar experiment with a single publication — Business Insider — earlier this month and got the same result.

An OpenAI spokesperson told Nieman Lab that the company was still building “an experience that blends conversational capabilities with their latest news content, ensuring proper attribution and linking to source material — an enhanced experience still in development and not yet available in ChatGPT.” But they declined to explain the fake URLs.

We don’t know when this new experience will be available or how reliable it will be. Despite this, news publishers continue to feed years of journalism into OpenAI’s gaping maw in exchange for cold, hard cash because the journalism industry has consistently sucked at figuring out how to make money without selling its soul to tech companies. Meanwhile, AI companies are chowing down on content published by anyone who hasn’t signed these Faustian bargains and using it to train their models anyway. Mustafa Suleyman, Microsoft’s AI head, recently called anything published on the internet “freeware” that is fair game for training AI models. Microsoft was valued at $3.36 trillion at the time I wrote this.

There’s a lesson here: If ChatGPT is making up URLs, it’s also making up facts. That’s how generative AI works — at its core, the technology is a fancier version of autocomplete, simply guessing the next plausible word in a sequence. It doesn’t “understand” what you say, even though it acts like it does. Recently, I tried getting our leading chatbots to help me solve the New York Times Spelling Bee and watched them crash and burn.

If generative AI can’t even solve the Spelling Bee, you shouldn't use it to get your facts.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/please-dont-get-your-news-from-ai-chatbots-000027227.html?src=rss

Bluesky ‘starter packs’ help new users find their way

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One of the most difficult parts of joining a new social platform is finding relevant accounts to follow. That has proved especially challenging for people who quit X to try out one of the many Twitter-like services that have cropped up in the last couple of years. Now, Bluesky has an interesting solution to this dilemma. The service introduced “starter packs,” which aim to address that initial discovery problem by allow existing users to build lists of accounts and custom feeds oriented around specific interests or themes.

In a blog post, the company described the feature as a way to “bring friends directly into your slice of Bluesky.” Users can curate up to 50 accounts and three custom feeds into a “starter pack.” That list can then be shared broadly on Bluesky or sent to new users via a QR code. Other users can then opt to follow an entire “pack” all at once, or scroll through to manually add the accounts and feeds they want to follow.

Bluesky starter pack.
Bluesky

Though Bluesky seems to be positioning the feature as a tool for new users, it’s also useful for anyone who feels like their feed is getting a little stale or has been curious about one of the many subcultures that have emerged on the platform. I’ve been on Bluesky for well over a year and I’ve already found some interesting starter packs, including Bluesky for Journalists (for people interested in news content) and Starter Cats (for accounts that post cat photos).

Starter packs also highlight another one of Bluesky’s more interesting features: custom feeds. The open-source service allows users to create their own algorithmic feeds that others can subscribe to and follow, a bit like a list on X. Custom feeds were introduced last year and have also been an important discovery tool. But scrolling a massive list of custom feeds can be overwhelming. Pairing these feeds with curated lists of users, though, is a much easier way to find ones related to topics you're actually interested in.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/bluesky-starter-packs-help-new-users-find-their-way-234322177.html?src=rss

The World’s Longest Immersed Tunnel Is Set To Connect Germany & Denmark In 2029

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Set to open in 2029, an impressive underwater road and rail tunnel is being constructed in Europe! Dubbed the Fehmarnbelt Tunnel, it will connect Germany and Denmark, crossing around an 11.2-mile stretch of the Baltic Sea. The Fehmarnbelt runner or the Fehmarn Belt fixed link is being constructed by Femern A/S, Rambøll, Arup, and TEC. It is set to be the world’s longest-immersed tunnel, and the world’s deepest-immersed tunnel with road and rail traffic. In these claims, it is important to focus on the ‘immersed’ bit, since there are longer undersea tunnels like the Channel Tunnel. But despite that, this is still a really exciting and extraordinary project!

Designer: Femern A/S, Rambøll, Arup and TEC

When the Fehmarnbelt Tunnel is completed, it will connect Rødbyhavn in Denmark and Fehmarn in Germany. It is set to be the shortest route between Scandinavia and the rest of Europe. People will have the option to take a seven-minute train journey or a ten-minute car drive across the Fehmarn Belt, instead of the forty-five-minute ferry. To build the expansive tunnel, 360,000 tonnes of rebar will be required, which is almost 50 times the weight of the Eiffel Tower’s metal structure. The site on the Danish section is the size of around 373 soccer pitches, and nearly 70 vessels were needed to dredge up the tunnel trench. As a whole, about 12 million cubic meters of soil was dredged up from the seabed.

As you can see the tunnel is truly something to reckon with, and it will include 79 standard and 10 special sections. The standard sections will weigh around 73,000 tonnes, with a length of 217 m, and a width of 42m, and a height of 10m. The special sections will be more compact and will be half the length of the standard sections. Although, the width and height will be a little more. The tunnel portions will be first cast on land and then floated into place with the help of a barge. After which they will be submerged, and firmly positioned on the seabed at a depth of 40m.

Such a mighty project will require a mighty budget to back it up. Currently, the budget for the Fehmarnbelt tunnel is around DKK8.4 billion or around US$1.2 billion. The first section of the tunnel was inaugurated by Denmark’s King Frederik X, and it will be sunk soon.

The post The World’s Longest Immersed Tunnel Is Set To Connect Germany & Denmark In 2029 first appeared on Yanko Design.

iPhone users won’t lose True Tone, other features after third-party repairs

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Apple is finally loosening some restrictions on third-party repairs. The tech giant said in its latest white paper, Longevity, by Design, that it will extend software support to third-party replacement batteries and displays installed into iPhones later this year. This means that it won’t deactivate True Tone and battery health data for iPhone users who receive those third-party repairs.

In case you don’t know what True Tone is, it’s a feature that adjusts the iPhone display’s white balance to match your environment. Currently, Apple disables that feature if the iOS detects that you installed a third-party replacement screen. You won’t suffer that loss anymore as the company “will allow consumers to activate True Tone with third-party parts to the best performance that can be provided” later this year. However, it pointed out that True Tone may not display accurate colors or perform well because third-party displays don’t always gel with Apple’s hardware, so you can choose to disable it if the screen doesn’t work the way you expect it to.

As for third-party replacement batteries, Apple will show their health metrics but it will notify users that it isn't able to verify them. The company says that an internal analysis that found that second-hand batteries with manipulated metrics are sometimes sold as new, and the iPhone’s metrics will mark the maximum capacity at 100 percent even though the battery’s current state won’t reflect that.

Apple has a long history of antagonizing third-party repairers of iPhones, but it’s slowly opening up to them. In 2022, it made the iPhone 14 easier to repair upon release but its restrictions on third-party replacement displays made it difficult for third-party vendors to fix the broken original screens. In April, it announced that iPhones will be repairable with genuine used parts starting this fall with the iPhone 15 and newer models.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/iphone-users-wont-lose-true-tone-other-features-after-third-party-repairs-232926095.html?src=rss

Dune director throws shade at the Deadpool & Wolverine popcorn bucket

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There’s a war brewing in Hollywood and we’re not talking about how AI will inevitably kill us all by plagiarizing The Joker’s chaos plans from The Dark Knight. We’re talking about the popcorn bucket war.

The latest shot came from Dune director Denis Villeneuve in a red carpet interview in which he called the Wolverine & Deadpool popcorn bucket “horrific” and called the Dune buckets “unmatchable.”

Villeneuve did an impromptu interview with eTalkCTV where a reporter asked him about the feud that’s been brewing between him and Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds over their respective popcorn receptacles. The reporter showed Villeneuve a picture of the Deadpool & Wolverine bucket featuring the yellow Wolverine’s head and his gaping maw full of some of Orville Redenbacher’s finest. Villeneuve said he doesn’t have anything against the bucket but he thinks they are just riding the coattails he unfurled when the Dune sandworm popcorn bucket blew up the Internet.

“I’m not saying I don’t like the bucket,” Villeneuve said. “I’m just saying it was difficult to beat the Dune bucket. It was like one of a kind.”

He’s got a point. Popcorn buckets weren’t even a movie going craze until the release of the Dune 2 sandworm bucket, a popcorn tub that looks like a sex toy punishment designed by Pinhead from the Hellraiser movies. It sparked a whole new marketing trend for the struggling movie theater industry that’s been trying to fight the convenient onslaught of streaming media. Theaters and studios produced special buckets for other movies like Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’s ghost trap and ECTO-1 buckets, Wonka’s Willy Wonka hat bucket and Inside Out 2’s core memory receptacle bucket.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/dune-director-throws-shade-at-the-deadpool--wolverine-popcorn-bucket-225500203.html?src=rss

Apple Watch X Leaks: 10th Anniversary Edition Rumored to Feature Larger Display and Magnetic Band

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Apple is gearing up to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its iconic wearable, and anticipation around the upcoming Apple Watch Series 10, or possibly Apple Watch X, is building. This milestone edition is rumored to bring significant updates and design enhancements, as suggested by recent leaks and renders from 91mobiles.

Designer: Apple

One of the most notable changes, as highlighted by 91mobiles, is the larger 2-inch display, the biggest ever on an Apple Watch. This new screen size is set to exceed the 1.93-inch display of the Apple Watch Ultra and the 1.7-inch display of the Apple Watch Series 9. According to the renders, the dimensions of the Series 10 are approximately 46 by 39.7 by 11.6 mm, making it larger than the Series 9 but still smaller than the Ultra.

Source 91mobiles.com: Apple Watch Series 10 CAD render

Another intriguing rumor is the potential redesign of the band connection system. The Apple Watch Series 10 might introduce a new magnetic band attachment system, replacing the current slide-in mechanism. This change could free up valuable internal space, possibly allowing for a larger battery or additional components. However, the CAD renders from 91mobiles do not show clear evidence of this new band attachment system. If it does make its way into the final design, the magnetic connection could contribute to a thinner overall watch.

Source 91mobiles.com: Apple Watch Series 10 CAD render

Despite these possible changes, the renders suggest that the Apple Watch Series 10 will maintain several familiar design elements. The iconic square display, digital crown, and side button appear to stay in their usual places. This consistency ensures that while the watch may evolve, it retains the recognizable aesthetic that has become synonymous with the Apple Watch brand.

Source 91mobiles.com: Apple Watch Series 10 CAD render

Adding to the excitement, WWDC 2024 introduced several new features we look forward to seeing in the Apple Watch Series 10. One of the most anticipated is the enhanced mental health monitoring capabilities, which will offer users a more comprehensive view of their well-being. Another is the advanced sleep tracking feature, providing detailed insights and personalized recommendations for improving sleep quality.

The upcoming watchOS also promises better integration with Apple Fitness+, bringing more guided workouts and real-time metrics directly to the wrist. A redesigned Siri interface, now more intuitive and responsive, will make interacting with the watch easier and more efficient. Finally, the new low-power mode is expected to extend battery life significantly, a welcome improvement for users who rely on their watch throughout the day and night.

While these leaks and renders from 91mobiles provide an exciting glimpse into the potential features of the Apple Watch Series 10, it is essential to approach them with caution. The actual design and features will only be confirmed with the official announcement, expected to coincide with the launch of the iPhone 16 series in September.

As Apple continues to innovate and refine its wearable technology, the Apple Watch Series 10 promises to be a significant step forward. It will combine a larger display, potential new band attachment system, and familiar design elements with the exciting new features announced at WWDC 2024. Fans and users eagerly await the official reveal to see how these rumored enhancements will translate into the next generation of the Apple Watch.

The post Apple Watch X Leaks: 10th Anniversary Edition Rumored to Feature Larger Display and Magnetic Band first appeared on Yanko Design.

Valve reveals the most-played games on Steam Deck

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Valve has added a new chart to its roster of publicly-available data: a list of the 100 top-played titles on the Steam Deck. The information can be sorted by the past week, month, or year, and will be updated daily.

These charts can play a big part in game discovery on the platform, so it's worth noting that making the list isn't only about the sheer number of players. Lawrence Yang from Valve told The Verge more about the process. "The metric we’re using to determine top-played is a combination of unique users and interest," Yang said. "Hades 2 has only been out for a month, but so many Steam Deck players have it as one of their top played games for the entire year, that it was lifted in the rankings."

At the chart's launch, Elden Ring unsurprisingly holds the top spot after the recent Shadow of the Erdtree release (and subsequent patch). Indie fave Stardew Valley is currently in second and hot deck-builder Balatro is in third. Both Hades 2 and Hades have made the top ten. There are some surprising entries too, such as Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX in fifth place and Fallout 4 in sixth. If you want to add anything on the Steam Deck chart to your library, now's the chance to load up your to-be-played queue for cheap with the ongoing Steam Summer Sale.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/valve-reveals-the-most-played-games-on-steam-deck-222004418.html?src=rss

Paramount’s strategy of purposeful digital rot doesn’t even make sense

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Sometimes as we navigate our way through the daily doom scroll that is our current news cycle, it’s nice to go back and remember how things used to be. Those times sucked too but a distraction is still a distraction. One of my favorite ways to look at the past was by going through old clips of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report on Comedy Central’s website.

Paramount went on a content teardown this week and pulled old clips and episodes of its signature satire shows from the Comedy Central website, as well as content from cable channels like TV Land, CMT and the Paramount Network, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Those sites now contain a notice that tells views the clips are unavailable there, but that they can "sign up for Paramount+ to watch many seasons of Comedy Central shows."

It’s a bizarre move because most of those old episodes aren’t available on its Paramount+ streaming service. Essentially, there's no longer a free, legal means to consume the archive of these shows. It wouldn’t be so insulting if you also couldn’t watch all of Carlos Mencia’s comedy specials on the platform.

If you’re itching to watch some of Comedy Central’s older shows, some are available on the streaming service and you can still purchase some episodes of The Colbert Report on AppleTV or the iTunes store. If you’re also like me and you still use DVDs, you can buy used copies of The Best of the Colbert Report and The Daily Show’s Indecision 2004 coverage of the presidential election from online retailers. Paramount can’t take away physical media… yet. But it seems likely some portion of these shows — as well as the entire MTVNews archive — are now effectively lost to time for no good reason.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/paramounts-strategy-of-purposeful-digital-rot-doesnt-even-make-sense-204613382.html?src=rss

Got a Rabbit R1? You can now run Android 13 on it and use it like a regular smartphone

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This clever little hack basically turns the Rabbit R1 into what it originally was – an Android device – albeit without the limited interface and shoddy AI abilities. YouTuber ‘HowToMen’ showed how he loaded Android 13 onto the R1, and the results are frankly surprising. The touchscreen now works, you can load almost every conceivable app, you can send SMSes, use the camera to take photos/videos or better still, pair it with Google Lens to tap into Google’s AI chops. The scroll wheel now becomes a volume scroller, and heck, the entire device just feels a little more redeemed from its failed past. If you’ve got a Rabbit R1, here’s a clever little trick to make it a little more useful just in case you weren’t happy with its capabilities before.

Designer: HowToMen

After disastrous reviews from the tech community, Humane and Rabbit saw their street cred evaporate almost overnight. Humane ended up folding entirely, trying to sell its entire operation to any buyer. Rabbit, on the other hand, has been a little more steadfast… although people who own the R1 never seem to recommend getting it. The result, dwindling sales and the prospect of a total device failure. For people who already ended up buying the R1, instead of being left with a pretty useless device that doesn’t do half the things it promises, it just makes sense to boot Android onto it. After all, the R1 is basically a highly stripped-down version of Android running just an AI app. Turns out, if you want to jailbreak your Rabbit R1, it isn’t too difficult. You can easily load Android 13 onto the device and use it just the way you would a smartphone.

HowToMen basically jailbroke the Rabbit R1 and installed Android 13 on it. Once done, he installed the Lawnchair launcher to give it a distinct Android-esque aesthetic while adding widgets that he developed himself. The result is basically a tiny Android phone that does everything except make actual calls (although someone on Twitter did demonstrate the ability to call people too). To be honest, it robs the R1 of its Rabbit-esque essence… but then again, I’m an advocate for the ‘if you buy it you own it and you can do whatever you want to it’ school of thought.

What you’re left with is a pretty capable device that lets you do much more than you previously could with the R1. It has every feature you’d expect from the Android OS, including a dropdown control center, a working camera (although the camera’s direction has to be toggled from the dropdown control center). The camera can be made to face forwards, backwards, or even downwards as a privacy filter.

The camera interface isn’t too detailed, and just lets you either click photos or record videos.

The screen regains its touch-ability, something that Rabbit disabled for the most part. You can navigate it the way you would any Android phone. The speakers at the back work just fine, and a built-in microphone lets you record voice notes. Notably, the scroller on the side now becomes a volume wheel, and the lock button works just as advertised. Pop a SIM card in and you can even do things like send SMSes to friends. I’m not sure if WhatsApp would work on the device, but that’s worth a try too.

The procedure is pretty simple, from what HowToMen describes. It involves installing Android onto the device from a GitHub repository, and then you can add launchers to your device to customize its appearance. There are, however, two caveats – for starters, that 2-inch screen feels like a massive downgrade, giving you an Android experience that feels like something from 2014. The second, is the massive reduction in battery life. Instead of running just the Rabbit AI app, you’re now running Android 13, with all its apps, a colorful interface, and 128 gigs of storage that let you really use the R1 like a phone – that takes a toll on the battery life of the device, making it last significantly less than the R1 originally would. That being said, it’s still a bit of a win, given that you can do much more with the device than you previously could. For a $199 device, it’s quite an achievement, isn’t it?! Even budget Android phones aren’t that cheap!

The post Got a Rabbit R1? You can now run Android 13 on it and use it like a regular smartphone first appeared on Yanko Design.