Tag Archives: author_name|Andre Revilla

Musk claims Tesla will restart work on its Dojo supercomputer

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Elon Musk posted on X that Tesla will be restarting work on Dojo3, the third generation of its in-house supercomputer project. The Dojo team had been disbanded last year as the company prioritized the AI chips that run on board Tesla vehicles. Musk said the company is returning to the project "now that the AI5 chip design is in good shape."

The purpose of the Dojo project is to process video recordings and other data from Tesla vehicles and use that to train the "neural net" behind the company's Full Self-Driving software. Last year, however, Musk posted on X that "It doesn’t make sense for Tesla to divide its resources and scale two quite different AI chip designs. The Tesla AI5, AI6 and subsequent chips will be excellent for inference and at least pretty good for training. All effort is focused on that."

The AI chips Musk is referring to are ones developed for running FSD onboard Tesla vehicles and are not optimized for training. The AI6 chips will be made by Samsung in the company's Texas factory, after it struck a $16 billion agreement with Tesla.

Musk has also claimed a lot of things over the years, and many of those assertions either were misrepresentations or simply didn't pan out. Working against this chip project: Musk said that Dojo3 will be "space-based AI compute," as he and others believe that data centers in orbit are a superior alternative to the land-based behemoths currently being built. The idea is that space provides easier access to the sun's energy, and the cold temperatures there might greatly reduce the power needed, among other benefits. While it's an increasingly popular if entirely speculative idea, experts have their doubts.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/musk-claims-tesla-will-restart-work-on-its-dojo-supercomputer-173127863.html?src=rss

Threads has more global daily users than X on mobile for the first time

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Meta’s Threads is pulling further ahead of Elon Musk’s X on mobile, based on recent estimates from analytics firm Similarweb, Forbes reports. In the first stretch of January, Threads averaged roughly 143 million daily active users worldwide on mobile devices, compared with about 126 million for X.

Similarweb’s year-over-year snapshot shows Threads growing sharply, up 37.8 percent year-over-year, while X’s daily mobile audience fell 11.9 percent across the same period. The picture is more mixed in the US, where X still holds a narrow edge on mobile. Similarweb data puts X at about 21.2 million daily active US mobile users in early January versus roughly 19.5 million for Threads.

However, Threads’ US mobile usage has risen substantially faster over the past year, surging almost 42 percent to X's 18 percent. X remains far larger on desktop, where it draws around 150 million daily users or visits worldwide, while Threads’ web presence sits at just 9 million.

Forbes also reported on Similarweb data for Bluesky, another competing text-based platform started by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. Dorsey left the board in the summer of 2024, later telling Pirate Wires he believed Bluesky was "literally repeating all the mistakes we made as a company," in reference to Twitter. The social network opened registrations in 2024, and sits now with a daily mobile user base of 3.6 million, which Similarweb says is down 44.4 percent year-over-year.

X has found itself in hot water yet again over xAI's Grok chatbot, which was altering pictures of women on the platform to create lewd images at the request of users without the consent of those pictured. In some cases, the chatbot also altered the images of underage girls. The uproar in response led the company to shut off image generation for nonsubscribers and place firmer guardrails on what types of images can be generated. The delayed action came after weeks of Grok creating tens of thousands of these images, and after the Attorney General of California launched an investigation.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/threads-has-more-global-daily-users-than-x-on-mobile-for-the-first-time-144936831.html?src=rss

Canada cuts tariffs on Chinese EVs as part of new deal

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Canada has agreed to drastically reduce its tariffs on imported Chinese EVs from 100 percent to 6.1 percent as part of a

between the two countries. In return, China will be reducing tariffs on Canadian canola seeds from 84 percent to about 15 percent.

The move is a break from the United States, which maintains a 100 percent tariff on EVs from China, effectively banning them in the country. Mexico currently tariffs the vehicles at 50 percent after

last year.

Under the agreement, which Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney

"preliminary," Canada will allow up to 49,000 Chinese EVs into the country, with that number rising to 70,000 after five years. Until now the three major North American trading partners had been aligned in trying to protect their domestic electric vehicle manufacturing. Chinese EV companies benefit from

, and as such can often be priced at a far better value than domestic alternatives.

“Our relationship has progressed in recent months with China. It is more predictable and you see results coming from that,” Carney

. A warmer relationship may be forming in response to the Trump administration's

, with China hoping that alienated nations may

with the Eastern power.

As to concerns that cheaper electric vehicles from China could hurt the Canadian auto market, the prime minister was unconcerned, saying "it’s still in low, single-digit proportion of the size of the Canadian auto sector," Carney added, “Canadians buy about 1.8 million autos a year.” China remains Canada’s second-largest trading partner after the United States.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/canada-cuts-tariffs-on-chinese-evs-as-part-of-new-deal-174241990.html?src=rss

Italian regulators are investigating Activision Blizzard’s monetization practices

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The Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) has opened two investigations into Microsoft-owned game studio Activision Blizzard, centered around the mobile games Diablo Immortal and Call of Duty: Mobile. The AGCM alleges the free-to-play games use "misleading and aggressive practices" to encourage in-game purchases.

Regulators say the games rely on a "deceptive user interface design" meant to encourage longer and more frequent play sessions while bombarding players with reminders and opportunities to spend real money in-game. Players might be reminded to buy a limited-time item before it's gone or urged not to miss out on rewards, with in-app messages and push notifications that reach players during and outside gameplay. The authority also raised concerns about virtual currency and in-game currency bundles that can make it harder to understand real-world costs.

Parental control settings are also being scrutinized as the AGCM says the default settings are too permissive, such as allowing in-game purchases and unlimited play time. The watchdog will also investigate potential violations of consumer contractual rights and practices that may encourage players to unknowingly give up those rights, such as the EU's 14-day right of withdrawal.

Free-to-play games have long leaned on loot boxes and other in-game purchases to drive monetization. Unlike full-priced games like Diablo IV, these systems can blur the line between natural progression and pay-to-win. For an idea of how quickly costs can add up, consider one player who reportedly spent $100,000 on Diablo Immortal.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/italian-regulators-are-investigating-activision-blizzards-monetization-practices-135057481.html?src=rss

How to claim Verizon’s $20 credit for Wednesday’s service outage

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Verizon is offering a very small mea culpa after Wednesday's massive outage, which drew more than 1.5 million reports on Downdetector and lasted hours. Initially, the carrier posted on X that it will offer a $20 credit, but customers must redeem it in the myVerizon app. The company then said the credit could be claimed though customer service (via phone or chat), but our editors’ attempts to do so via chat were met with a message to wait for a text with further instructions.

Engadget editors began receiving the texts this morning (Jan 16) with a link to redeem. From there, you need to log into your account and visit the Account Overview section. Up top, there should be a Take Action or Mobile Actions button with a red notification circle. Click that and you’ll see a pop-up about the credit and a Redeem Now button. After you click that, you’re done, and Verizon says you should see the credit in one or two billing cycles. Of course, you’ll want to keep an eye out that it actually happens and contact the company if it doesn’t show up.

"This credit isn’t meant to make up for what happened. No credit really can," the company wrote. "But it’s a way of acknowledging your time and showing that this matters to us." Incensed customers have largely replied with incredulity, both at the miniscule amount, and that it isn't being applied automatically. The entire redemption process takes a few clicks and about a minute to complete, which makes it even more frustrating that it can’t be automatically applied to every customer’s bill.

Update, January 15 2026, 11:57 PM ET: Verizon says the credit can be claimed through customer service via phone, chat and online in addition to the myVerizon app. 

Update, January 16 2026, 10:29 AM ET: This story has been updated with detailed info about the redemption process which Verizon now says is completed with a link that will be texted to customers.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/how-to-claim-verizons-20-credit-for-wednesdays-service-outage-171909695.html?src=rss

Wikimedia announces AI partners including Meta and Microsoft

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As part of Wikipedia's 25th anniversary, parent company Wikimedia announced a slew of partnerships with AI-focused companies like Amazon, Meta, Perplexity, Microsoft and others. The deals are meant to alleviate some of the cost associated with AI chatbots accessing Wikipedia content in enormous volumes by giving the tech companies streamlined access.

As noted by The Verge, the timeline on these deals is a little squirrely. The Wikipedia foundation says that several companies became enterprise partners "over the past year," while listing Amazon, Google and Meta as "existing" partners. It appears today is the first time they have been officially announced.

The organization sounded the alarm on this issue last year, saying the reduction in traffic due to LLMs and AI summaries could prove existential for the nonprofit and the world's largest online encyclopedia. Wikipedia's 65 million free articles have served as rich training data for AI chatbots, but all that scraping has driven up server costs at the organization.

Wikimedia had been hoping to move these large firms over to its enterprise platform to help with costs. "It took us a little while to understand the right set of features and functionality to offer if we're going to move these companies from our free platform to a commercial platform ... but all our Big Tech partners really see the need for them to commit to sustaining Wikipedia's work," Lane Becker, president of Wikimedia Enterprise told Reuters.

Under the deal, these companies will have access to high-throughput APIs that can supply chatbot systems with content from Wikipedia as well as Wikimedia’s other projects, including Wikivoyage, Wikibooks, Wikiquote and more.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/wikimedia-announces-ai-partners-including-meta-and-microsoft-162834383.html?src=rss

The first-gen Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones are $150 off right now

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The first-generation Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones are on sale right now for $280, marked down from $430. That 35 percent savings is an even steeper discount than we saw last year Black Friday.

In our review of the first-generation Ultras, we gave them a score of 86 out of 100, noting their best-in-class active noise cancellation (ANC) and comfort. Bose improved its stock tuning for these headphones, which we could immediately tell sounded warmer and clearer. Bose has typically lagged behind the likes of Sony and Sennheiser in raw sound quality, but the first-generation QuietComfort Ultra was a big step toward catching up.

Bose added "Immersive Audio" to this model, which is the company's take on spatial audio. The company claims this feature effectively puts you in the acoustic sweet spot of a set of stereo speakers. In our testing, we felt this didn't always make songs sound better, but it did make them louder and in some cases made certain details more noticeable.

The Ultras offer up to 24 hours of battery life with ANC turned on and about 18 hours with both ANC and Immersive Audio enabled. In our testing, however, we were actually able to beat Bose's estimates for battery life.

The second generation of these headphones are currently our top pick for best noise-canceling headphones, but when this older model is heavily on sale, the differences between them are less dramatic. If you're in the market for a pair of great noise-canceling cans, consider checking these out.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-first-gen-bose-quietcomfort-ultra-headphones-are-150-off-right-now-164826329.html?src=rss

Gemini can now pull context the rest of your Google apps, if you let it

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Gemini is adding a feature that’s designed to feel more tailored to individual users. Once enabled, "Personal Intelligence" can pull context from across your Google ecosystem, including Gmail, Google Photos, Search and YouTube History, to gain specific insight that will shape its answers and recommendations. Personal Intelligence is available starting today in the US for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers. The feature is opt-in only and is off by default.

Gemini Personal Intelligence
Google

Google says users will have the ability to control what apps Gemini pulls from and, in the future, which chats it uses Personal Intelligence for. The company says this new feature might still make some mistakes, such as “over-personalization” where it draws connections between unrelated things.

According to Google, Gemini will not train directly on the data it pulls for personalization like your photos and emails, but will instead train on your prompts and its responses. Users can also prompt Gemini to "try again" without personalization and will have the option to delete chat histories.

For now, Personal Intelligence works in the Gemini app across web, Android and iOS for personal Google accounts. Google says it’s coming to Search’s AI Mode soon, with plans to expand to more countries and the free tier down the line.

Google has been on a tear integrating Gemini into everything, including Gmail, TVs and Chrome on mobile. This week, Apple announced that Siri AI will be powered by Gemini as part of a multi-year collaboration. AI remains an imperfect tool, and Google's AI has a long history of malfunctions like explaining made-up idioms, calling itself a "failure" in a depressing doom loop and generating images of the Founding Fathers as people of color.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/gemini-can-now-pull-context-the-rest-of-your-google-apps-if-you-let-it-160039468.html?src=rss

NBA League Pass is up to 55 percent off

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Basketball fans can save on NBA League Pass right now, which lets you catch a bunch of out-of-market NBA games via streaming. The League Pass Premium subscription is on sale for $75, down from the usual $160, and League Pass Standard is marked down to $50 from $110. Considering we're almost halfway though the season, the discount makes sense and is a good deal for anyone who wants to keep a close eye on the rest of the games to be played this year.

The Standard plan includes commercials and support for only one device at a time, while the Premium tier offers no commercials, in-arena streams during breaks in the game, offline viewing of full games and concurrent streams on up to three devices at once.

Last year, League Pass added multiview, which allows you to view up to four games at once on a single screen. This is included across both subscription tiers. The service also added a smart rewind tool that automatically selects key highlights and plays from each game.

Outside the US and Canada, League Pass carries every single NBA game live, but within these countries a bevy of restrictions apply. In the US, any games being shown on your regional sports network will be blacked out as the service is meant for out-of-market games only. Also, any nationally broadcast games will not be available live, but instead will be available for on-demand viewing at 6AM ET the following day. The service is only for regular-season games.

If you're an avid NBA fan that follows multiple teams then the League Pass almost certainly carries dozens of games you can watch even with the restrictions in the US. Subscribers can get a list of applicable blackouts by entering their ZIP code before signing up.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/nba-league-pass-is-up-to-55-percent-off-163421368.html?src=rss

It’s the last day to get up to $90 off reMarkable E Ink tablet bundles

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E Ink tablet maker reMarkable is running a bundle deal right now that can save you between $80 and $90 when buying a reMarkable 2 along with a Marker stylus and a folio case. The savings vary depending on the bundle you configure, but this can bring your out-the-door cost down to $449 from $529 for the tablet, Marker stylus and polymer weave book folio. The offer runs through January 17.

The company also sells a newer stylus called Marker Plus that lets you erase by flipping it around just like a real pencil, but that will cost you an extra $50. If you’ve been eyeing a dedicated writing tablet for work, school or just jotting down notes without the distraction of endless apps, this bundle deal is an ideal opportunity to pick one up.

The reMarkable 2 earned our top pick for best e-ink tablet. In our review, we said the tablet was prettier than ever with a 10.3-inch display and a handsome aluminum frame. The tablet is only 4.7mm thick and weighs less than a pound, helping it feel lean and portable.

The display can detect over 4,000 different levels of pressure with the Marker stylus, allowing for precise shading when sketching and the latency between the stylus and the screen is just 21ms. reMarkable fitted the display with a resin layer on top of the glass to make writing on it feel more realistic. We didn't think this passed muster, but we found writing on it was a joy nonetheless.

The tablet supports PDFs and ePUBs, which can be added via the companion mobile app or a desktop computer. You can also pair the reMarkable 2 with Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive or Dropbox to access files. The battery is rated for an impressive two weeks between charges.

The reMarkable Paper Pro, a higher-end model with a richer feature set like a full color display and a built-in reading light, is our pick for best premium e-ink tablet. The pricier tablet also has bundle deals right now with savings up to $80 depending on configuration.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/tablets/its-the-last-day-to-get-up-to-90-off-remarkable-e-ink-tablet-bundles-150242090.html?src=rss