Tag Archives: Technology & Electronics

OpenAI breaks out of exclusivity agreements in its partnership with Microsoft

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OpenAI is opening up its partnership with Microsoft in the latest amendment to the major multi-year collaboration between the tech giants. The latest changes allow OpenAI to offer its latest AI models to other companies and through other cloud providers, stripping Microsoft of its exclusivity rights.

In a joint announcement posted on OpenAI and Microsoft's websites, Microsoft will still be OpenAI's primary cloud partner with the latest products shipping first on Azure, but OpenAI is now allowed to use any cloud provider. Sam Altman, OpenAI's CEO, posted on X that the company is "now able to make our products and services available across all clouds."

On top of that, Microsoft will still have a license for OpenAI's models and products through to 2032, but the license will no longer be exclusive. On the business side, Microsoft will no longer pay a revenue share to OpenAI, but OpenAI would still make revenue share payments to Microsoft until 2030, which will now be subject to a total cap.

The two companies have worked closely together since announcing a multiyear partnership in 2019. Microsoft and OpenAI have gone through several phases for its collaboration, but the two put out a joint statement in February of this year that still mentioned the exclusivity agreements. However, the latest update confirms that OpenAI can break exclusivity, with the companies arguing these changes are for "flexibility, certainty, and a focus on delivering the benefits of AI broadly."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/openai-breaks-out-of-exclusivity-agreements-in-its-partnership-with-microsoft-162829584.html?src=rss

Spotify is now a fitness app too

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In its quest to become an all-in-one app, Spotify is now breaking into the fitness app world by offering "guided workout experiences" and on-demand Peloton classes. Premium subscribers will get access to Peloton's library of more than 1,400 classes in the app, while both Free and Premium can browse curated playlists (they're listed under the genre "fitness.")

Spotify's Fitness section showing example workouts and video to follow along with.
Spotify

Spotify said the classes are primarily in English, but there are some options in Spanish and German. Like music and podcasts, Spotify lets you bounce between different devices for its fitness media, so you can start a video workout on your TV and switch to an audio-only version on your phone or smart speaker. Users can even download the classes for offline use.

The fitness category may feel like a sharp turn for Spotify, but the company said that nearly 70 percent of its Premium subscribers work out monthly and that fitness and workout content was one of the top use cases for its Prompted Playlist feature. Spotify has long been expanding its offerings outside of music, with its latest efforts giving users a way to buy physical books or create group chats. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/spotify-is-now-a-fitness-app-too-144037057.html?src=rss

The sequel to the iconic emulator ZSNES is called Super ZSNES, of course

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Somehow, ZSNES has returned after laying dormant for 20 years. The developers of the iconic Super Nintendo emulator, which originally debuted in 1997 for DOS (something I distinctly remember trying to install on my ancient Intel 486 Packard Bell), are back with a sequel release dubbed Super ZSNES. And really, what else would they call it?

Developers zsKnight and Demo say that Super ZSNES has been rewritten from scratch with a focus on a GPU-powered “Super Enhancement Engine,” which allows for high resolution playback, overclocking (which could help with games notorious for slowdown), widescreen support, uncompressed audio and 3D height maps for Mode 7 graphics. Purists, of course, can turn all of these extra features off if they want.

Super ZSNES is built on “far more accurate CPU and Audio cores” than the original emulator, according to the developers, as well as the usual fast forward/rewind save states and a higher-resolution version of the original ZSNES UI. And as a cherry on top, they promise there’s “No Vibe Coding.”

There’s no shortage of SNES emulators out there today, but it warms my gaming heart to see ZSNES completely revived. And while I still need to play with its enhancement features to truly judge them, the early footage from Modern Vintage Gamer looks very sharp without losing the SNES charm. There’s no replacement for playing the original console on a CRT, but the GPU upgrades in Super ZSNES seem to do a great job of modernizing classic games like Super Mario World for modern displays.

Super ZSNES is currently available as an early build for Windows, Mac and Android. An iOS release is coming soon, according to the emulator’s website.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/the-sequel-to-the-iconic-emulator-zsnes-is-called-super-zsnes-of-course-135203417.html?src=rss

Forced Windows updates can now be paused forever

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No more getting caught by a forced Windows 11 update while you're in the middle of a meeting or a match. Microsoft announced some major changes coming to Windows Update on its blog, including the ability to indefinitely pause Windows updates, 35 days at a time.

To give users more control, Windows Update introduced the option to extend update pauses as much as users want. Once you opted to pause updates for Windows 11, you won't be disturbed for 35 days at a time, but you can now reset this 35-day limit for as long as you want. You should eventually install these updates, as most of them are usually related to security upgrades and only sometimes require emergency fixes, but Microsoft is letting users decide when to do so. Microsoft's Aria Hanson wrote in the blog that these changes were a result of feedback that consistently mentioned "disruption caused by untimely updates and not enough control over when updates happen."

Beyond the update pauses, Microsoft is ensuring Windows 11 users always have the option to shut down or restart their devices without updating. These quality-of-life upgrades build on another recent change that allowed users to skip updates while setting up their new Windows devices. According to Microsoft, the latest Windows Updates features are currently rolling out to those enrolled in the Windows Insider program, specifically users in the Dev and Experimental Channels.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/forced-windows-updates-can-now-be-paused-forever-200338487.html?src=rss

Engadget review recap: DJI Osmo Pocket 4, Recteq X-Fire Pro and Alienware 27 QD-OLED

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Engadget’s hottest review roundup truly has it all this week: a new pocket cam, a 2-in-1 smart grill, a pair of drones and a pricey skinny vac. And that’s before we even get to the highly capable gaming display that will only set you back $350. Read on to catch up on the reviews you might’ve missed over the last two weeks as we prepare for another slate of big events next month.

DJI’s Osmo Pocket cameras have become a staple of Engadget’s live event coverage over the last few years. They’re convenient, compact and product high-quality footage when speed matters. Contributing review reporter James Trew recently put the new Osmo Pocket 4 through its paces, concluding that “you’re getting better image quality that will pay you back over time.”

With the X-Fire Pro, Recteq set out to make a pellet grill that would appeal to fans of gas grills. The company has done just that, offering a dual-mode device that imparts wood flavor you don’t inherently get from propane or natural gas. “Recteq has successfully combined the best aspects of pellet grills with a dedicated high-heat mode and separate controls that will be familiar to gas grillers,” I said. “This model offers robust build quality, reliable performance and Wi-Fi connectivity for extended smoking sessions.”

Can a $350 gaming monitor offer enough to get the job done? If you’re talking about the Alienware 27 QD-OLED display, that answer is a resounding “yes.”

“The AW2726DM might not have all the fancy features you get on more expensive monitors, but it’s an excellent example of a no frills gadget done right,” senior reporter Sam Rutherford said. “You get just enough ports, a straightforward design and a beautiful QD-OLED panel with a solid resolution and refresh rate — all for just $350.”

Like the Osmo Pocket 4, DJI’s latest Drones are unlikely to make it to the US. However, if you live elsewhere, there’s a lot of performance available for under $400. “The Lito series shows that DJI is intent on dominating every drone price range and category, including the bottom end,” contributing reporter Steve Dent said. “Despite their low prices, the new drones don’t skimp on features, offering full obstacle protection, ActiveTrack subject tracking, relatively high speeds and sharp 4K video quality — just like models that cost a lot more.”

If your spring cleaning could still use a jump start, perhaps a fancy, skinny vacuum could do the trick for light duty. “With its minimalist form factor, the PencilVac is still an engineering marvel,” UK bureau chief Mat Smith said. “Its high degree of mobility makes it easy to clean in tight corners and between furniture. I just wish it were slightly more powerful.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/engadget-review-recap-dji-osmo-pocket-4-recteq-x-fire-pro-and-alienware-27-qd-oled-120000428.html?src=rss

XChat, the standalone app for messaging on X, is available on iOS now

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XChat, the standalone app for accessing X's messaging feature, is available to download now for iOS. X first suggested it would be stripping direct messaging from X in 2025, but at least for now, XChat is available in the original X app, the web and this new app.

Based on its launch video, the new XChat app offers many of the elements of modern messaging X had already introduced to its chats feature, like the ability to delete and edit messages, block screenshots and send disappearing messages. The new XChat app also supports video and audio calls, and X claims that all messages sent with XChat are end-to-end encrypted.

XChat will also be expected to be the home of any groups that formed around X's Communities feature. The social platform recently announced that it was retiring Communities at the end of May, and suggested that XChat's support for larger group chats could be a worthwhile alternative. XChat's group chats can currently have 350 participants, but X plans to expand that number in the future.

Elon Musk's original pitch after he rebranded Twitter as X, was to turn the platform into an "everything app," where things like an algorithmic feed, messaging, job boards and even payments could exist side-by-side. A standalone messaging app seems like the exact opposite of that, but it might also reflect where X finds itself in 2026. The company is now a subsidiary of xAI, and xAI itself is part of SpaceX. Musk's push into AI appears to be the going concern, and cloning something like WeChat might just be less important.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/xchat-the-standalone-app-for-messaging-on-x-is-available-on-ios-now-214826886.html?src=rss

The MacBook Neo is a glimpse into John Ternus’s Apple

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John Ternus was unavoidable when Apple debuted the Macbook Neo. He kicked off an intimate media event for the Neo, introducing it as a transformative machine for Apple thanks to its low $599 cost ($499 for education customers) and premium build quality. He was interviewed on Good Morning America, the sort of prominent media feature CEO Tim Cook typically handles. And when I asked Apple workers about the Neo at its launch event, they almost always brought up Ternus’ vision of the laptop. 

For all intents and purposes, Ternus was Apple’s frontman for the MacBook Neo.

Ternus is slated for his coronation as Apple's CEO on September 1, and the Neo is not only a feather in his cap, but a likely indication of the company's approach to products going forward. It’s a sign that Apple is getting more comfortable taking risks. 

Apple lives and dies on its own premium image. It completely gave up on making cheap iPhones like the SE and 5C, and the $599 iPhone 16e and 17e are more expensive than typical mid-range Android phones (though the $249 Apple Watch SE is admittedly one of the cheaper smartwatches around.). It was risky to shove a mobile processor into a full-fledged computer, which could have made it too weak. And it was a gamble to stick with a meager 8GB of RAM, practically sacrilegious within the Apple pantheon. It's not breaking new ground for product categories, but the Neo, in being a budget laptop at all, is surprisingly un-Apple.

A citrus MacBook Neo on a table outside.
A citrus MacBook Neo on a table outside.
Devindra Hardawar for Engadget

And yet, thanks to Ternus's hardware leadership and Apple's command of its software, the MacBook Neo has been a resounding success. It has the best build quality, screen, keyboard, speakers and trackpad that I've ever seen in a $600 laptop. As I wrote in my review, "every Windows PC maker, including Microsoft, should be ashamed." 

While we don’t know the full build cost for the Neo, Apple’s margins for selling it will undoubtedly be far slimmer than the MacBook Air or Pro. But the Neo is more than a profit maker. It’s a device that can serve as a gateway to the Apple ecosystem for kids and students. Even better, it could easily tempt over Windows users.

We can't give Ternus all the credit for the Neo, of course, there's an entire team of product managers and engineers below him doing the actual design work. But it's hard to deny the flex of building a $600 laptop that doesn't feel like total garbage. The MacBook Neo surprised me, a jaded technology reporter, on practically every level. And its existence makes me wonder how a Ternus-led Apple could continue to iterate without compromising quality or Apple's signature attention to detail.

Ternus is the rare Apple engineer who has played a role in almost all of its existing products — in his 25 year tenure, he’s taken charge of building the Mac, iPad, iPhone and Apple Watch. That gives him a unique perspective of where the company could go next, as well as how Apple could stretch its own capabilities. And based on what I’ve seen of the MacBook Neo, it’ll be interesting to see how Apple reshapes itself for the future.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/the-macbook-neo-is-a-glimpse-into-john-ternuss-apple-170000842.html?src=rss

Engadget Podcast: Tim Cook’s Apple era and what lies ahead for John Ternus

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The Apple rumors were true, once again. This week, the company announced that Tim Cook will be stepping down from his CEO role on September 1. Replacing him will be John Ternus, who currently serves as Apple's SVP of hardware engineering. In this episode, Devindra and Engadget's Nathan Ingraham discuss Cook's legacy as Apple's CEO, and pontificate about how Ternus may change things. We're going from Apple being led by a logistics guru, to Apple being driven by a product and engineering wizard. Surely, that will have some impact on future products.

  • Tim Cook to step down as Apple CEO after 15 years, John Ternus will take his place on September 1 – 1:22

  • Palantir woke up last Saturday morning and posted a comic book villain manifesto on X – 26:01

  • DHS wants to make facial recognition smart glasses for ICE – 31:53

  • A lot of people panic bought PCs to avoid RAMageddon – 36:25

  • Meta faces a new lawsuit over running ads for outright scams –

  • Employees at Meta will have they keystrokes and mouse moves recorded for AI training – 40:10

  • Xbox Game Pass Ultimate price goes down, but it won’t include Call of Duty – 44:55

  • Around Engadget: a great (expensive) Dyson vac with a silly name – 49:15

  • Working on – 51:58

  • Pop culture picks – 52:55

Hosts : Devindra Hardawar and Nathan Ingraham
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O’Brien

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/engadget-podcast-tim-cooks-apple-era-and-what-lies-ahead-for-john-ternus-121853488.html?src=rss

DeepSeek promises its new AI model has ‘world-class’ reasoning

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DeepSeek has released its latest AI models, the V4 Pro and Flash versions, a bit over a year after it went viral and became the top rated free app on Apple's App Store in the US. “Welcome to the era of cost-effective 1 million context length,” DeepSeek said in its announcement. Context length is what you call the maximum number of tokens that an AI model can remember, so the bigger it is, the more coherent and consistent an AI is when it comes to extended conversations. OpenAI’s recently announced GPT‑5.5 has a context window ranging from 400,000 to 1 million, for instance.

The new model is still open-source, allowing users to download its code and modify it if they want. DeepSeek says V4 Pro has enhanced agentic capabilities and claims that it rivals top closed-source models when it comes to reasoning. It also says that it trails only Gemini-3.1-Pro in rich world knowledge. Meanwhile, V4 Flash isn’t quite as powerful as the V4 Pro, but it has faster response times. Still, its reasoning abilities closely approach V4 Pro, DeepSeek says, and it performs on par with with the Pro version on simple Agent tasks.

Shortly after DeepSeek topped the App Store charts, it was banned for use by US federal agencies and on government-owned devices. Authorities believed it was a national security risk and posed a threat to US AI stocks. South Korea also paused downloads of its app over privacy concerns.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/deepseek-promises-its-new-ai-model-has-world-class-reasoning-115733512.html?src=rss

The Morning After: Polymarket and a hairdryer

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Although it’s one of the more inoffensive topics on Polymarket, this news typifies the Wild West of prediction markets and betting sites. A hairdryer was allegedly used to rig Polymarket bets on temperatures at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, according to a report by The Telegraph. French authorities noted that the official temperature readings at the airport spiked twice in the past month. On both occasions, gamblers betting on those temperature fluctuations on Polymarket appear to have walked away with thousands upon thousands of dollars.

There is no indication that Polymarket forced anyone to return winnings, but the temperature sensor has been moved to a new location. The site is also still running bets on the daily temperature in and around Paris.

In a more serious development, a US soldier was arrested for allegedly making over $400,000 on Polymarket using information he had about the plans to capture the former Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro.

Gannon Ken Van Dyke was arrested and charged with using classified military information to place bets on the prediction marketplace Polymarket. Van Dyke created a Polymarket account around December 26, 2025, and made 13 bets related to Maduro from December 27 to January 2.

The soldier has also been charged with one count of wire fraud, carrying a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, and one count of unlawful monetary transaction, carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years. It’s a lot heavier than hairdryer shenanigans.

— Mat Smith

TMA
Engadget

DJI is taking another stab at the budget drone market with the new Lito series. The Lito 1 and Lito X1 are both under $400 and weigh less than 249 grams — they’re ideal for beginners. Both replace DJI’s Mini series, but they offer things those models lacked, like LiDAR and 360-degree obstacle avoidance. After testing both models, I believe they offer unbeatable value and performance at these prices, by a long shot. However, due to DJI’s standing in the US, you might not see either.

Continue reading.

TMA
Activision

As suggested by recent comments by the new boss of Xbox, Microsoft’s gaming arm is cutting the prices of both Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass, effective immediately, but there’s one big caveat. New Call of Duty games will no longer be available on Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass on day one. They’ll eventually hit those tiers about a year later, during the following holiday season.

Continue reading.

Anker, of battery-pack and cable fame, has announced its own AI chip that it will integrate into its future headphones and other devices. The company is planning to debut the chip, called Thus, on a new model of headphones to be unveiled at its Anker Day event in May.

Anker’s Thus chip integrates computing power directly into NOR flash memory cells, which offer faster read speeds than NAND. Anker says headphones are a particularly challenging environment to demonstrate what a new chip can do because “hardly any other device places higher demands on an AI chip.” Anker announced one particular feature to showcase its silicon. Clear Calls will cancel noise “with a large neural network running entirely on the device, supported by eight MEMS microphones and two bone conduction sensors.”

Continue reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-112802570.html?src=rss