OpenAI has started selling power users extra credits for its Sora AI video generation tool. An extra 10 video gens will retail for $4 through Apple’s App Store. The company currently has a limit of 30 free gens per day, a rate that will likely decrease as OpenAI starts to monetize the offering. Bill Peebles, who heads OpenAI's Sora, posted on X about the changes.
"Eventually we will need to bring the free gens down to accommodate growth (we won't have enough gpus to do it otherwise!), but we’ll be transparent as it happens," he said.
we are launching the ability to buy extra gens in sora today. we are doing this for two main reasons:
first, we have been quite amazed by how much our power users want to use sora, and the economics are currently completely unsustainable. we thought 30 free gens/day would be…
Peebles also said that OpenAI plans to monetize by letting entities essentially license out their copyrighted material, either their artwork, characters or likenesses. "We imagine a world where rightsholders have the option to charge extra for cameos of beloved characters and people," he wrote. Although making the cameo feature a core part of the monetization while the company is being sued by Cameo for trademark infringement is certainly a bold choice. And that's just the latest in a series of dodgyactions tied to OpenAI's text-to-video AI app.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-now-sells-extra-sora-credits-for-4-plans-to-reduce-free-gens-in-the-future-223905628.html?src=rss
The future of Affinity Designer, Photo and Publisher, subscription-free alternatives to Adobe Creative Cloud, was uncertain after the apps' developer Serif was acquired by Canva in 2024. Now, over a year later, the changes Canva has introduced are big, but not necessarily unwelcome. The newly relaunched Affinity by Canva combines all three apps into a single piece of illustration, photo editing and layout software, and rather than move to a subscription model as many feared, Canva's made it entirely free. Or, at least, freemium.
Affinity is available now as a desktop app for macOS and Windows, with an iPadOS version on the way at some point in the future. The basic functionality of the app doesn't seem all that different from the three separate apps Serif offered before, only now you can toggle between their tools via separate Vector, Pixel and Layout tabs. Canva stresses you also have the option to mix and match tools, and save custom toolbars to use for specific types of projects, if you want.
Beyond layering in chunky serif fonts, Canva's touch seems relatively light. The Affinity app now requires a free Canva account to use and offers integrations with the company's suite of tools, with a new option to send an Affinity project directly to Canva. The company is also making its Canva AI Studio tools available in Affinity, giving users the ability to automatically remove a background or use Generative Fill to edit part of a photo. How well veteran Affinity users will take to these changes remains to be seen, but they'll at least be able to continue using their existing copies of the old Affinity V2 lineup.
Free sounds good, but one of the draws of the original Affinity creative suite is that you could purchase a license for Serif's individual apps and not ever have to think about it again. Canva is promising that the new Affinity will be free going forward, but a free app that requires an account and might try to upsell you on subscription-based AI features is not quite the same thing.
Affinity wasn't the only Adobe competitor to be acquired in 2024. Pixelmator, a developer of popular photo and image editing tools for iOS, iPadOS and macOS, was absorbed by Apple in November that same year. The company's apps continue to be maintained, but it’s still not clear if Apple plans to shift them to a subscription model in the future.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/affinity-resurfaces-as-an-all-in-one-illustration-photo-editing-and-layout-app-204833289.html?src=rss
On Thursday, Samsung launched a desktop version of its web browser. Why bother putting its mobile browser on Windows? Well, the company offers a hint in describing Samsung Internet as "evolving from a PC browser that waits for input to an integrated AI platform." So, surprise, surprise: It's about AI.
As one would imagine, Samsung Internet on Windows supports cross-platform syncing of data like bookmarks, browsing history and autofill. The company says it also prioritizes privacy and security, offering standard features like tracker blocking and a privacy dashboard.
But those aren't likely the main reasons Samsung is launching a desktop web browser in 2025. (Incidentally, Samsung briefly launched Samsung Internet for Windows in 2024, before pulling it from the Microsoft Store without fanfare.) Instead, this launch appears to be about positioning it in the rapidly emerging landscape of AI browsers.
AI browsers have been all the rage lately. Samsung's move follows the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT Atlas, Microsoft's Edge Copilot Mode updates, Opera Neon's early access and general availability for Perplexity's Comet browser. Samsung says its cross-platform browser will advance its "vision for ambient AI," anticipating your needs and offering more personalized assistance. If Samsung wants to be part of that fray, it makes sense for its software to be available on the desktop, too.
Samsung Internet is available (via a beta program) for Windows 11 and Windows 10 (version 1809 and up). You can sign up on the product page.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/samsungs-web-browser-arrives-on-windows-with-an-ai-future-on-its-radar-163526726.html?src=rss
Pinterest is adding a new way to find clothes, furniture and other sources of aesthetic inspiration through its app. It's called Pinterest Assistant, and it's an AI-powered search and recommendation tool that uses knowledge of your Pinterest activity to tailor its responses.
Whereas other search features work best when you have a specific thing you're looking for in mind, Pinterest says the Pinterest Assistant is meant to handle more open-ended requests. Asking for pillows that match your "living room decor" is supposed to be enough for the AI to surface interesting results. To do that, the Pinterest Assistant looks at the items you've saved and the boards you've created (for example, a board full of living room decor inspiration), compares it with the things Pinterest users with similar taste have saved and displays visual results tailored to you.
You start a search with Pinterest Assistant by tapping on the mic icon.
Pinterest
Pinterest appears to be specifically interested in the multimodal aspect of this new feature. The main way the company imagines you'll interact with Pinterest Assistant is via a mic icon in the Pinterest app that starts a voice search. The AI assistant then takes that audio prompt and uses it to filter and analyze visual content to find the best fit. Besides surfacing items you might not have found on your own, Pinterest says the whole process should be "closer to how people shop in real life."
Rolling out its own AI features puts Pinterest in an interesting place when it comes to AI content on its platform. Users have complained that the growing amount of AI-generated material on Pinterest has made it hard to find real things to buy or add to a board. In May, the company started labeling AI content in the app to make finding real items easier, and earlier in October it added a way to "dial down" the amount of AI generated content users see in the app. Pinterest Assistant isn't necessarily a solution for an AI slop problem the company is struggling to solve, but it might help users who are sick of sifting through AI content anyway.
Pinterest Assistant begins rolling out in beta today to users in the US who are 18 and over, with wider availability coming in the next weeks and months.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/pinterest-has-its-own-ai-assistant-now-160000183.html?src=rss
Norton Security has some reliable products, but its VPN isn't one of them. In my Norton VPN review, I argued that it's only really worthwhile if you can get a discount on it as part of a Norton 360 package — and even in that case, you should only use it for non-sensitive activities due to some holes in Norton's comprehensive privacy policy.
That's a lot of conditions, so I'd understand if you're here because you've decided Norton VPN isn't for you. Read on to learn your options for cancelling this VPN, getting a refund and replacing it with a better provider.
How to turn off Norton VPN auto-renewal
The simplest way to cancel Norton VPN is to stop your subscription from automatically renewing. That way, you'll have until your plan expires to look for a new VPN. Note that the steps below are the same no matter how you got Norton VPN, whether on its own or as part of Norton 360 — though they only apply if you subscribed through the Norton website, not an app store.
Sign into your account at my.norton.com. You'll be taken to your account dashboard with your subscriptions tab visible. If it's not, click on My Subscriptions.
On your subscriptions hub, find the plan you get Norton VPN through. Click the words Manage Renewal or Cancel Subscription Renewal.
In the window that appears, click Unsubscribe. Select a reason for cancellation (no need to be truthful) and click Next.
At this point, you'll have to wade through several pleas for you to stay. Stand firm and keep clicking through until you can click No thanks, cancel my subscription.
Continue clicking Next until you see a confirmation that auto-renewal has been turned off. Wait 24 hours for the change to take effect.
Sam Chapman for Engadget
If you change your mind after turning auto-renewal off, you can turn it back on again anytime before the subscription expires. For those who bought through an app store, there's no way to turn off auto-renewal; you can only cancel the subscription altogether. See the end of the next section to learn how to do that.
How to cancel Norton VPN and get a refund
You can request a refund on any annual subscription for 60 days after paying. Monthly subscriptions can only be refunded once, within 14 days of paying — if you renew a monthly plan then decide to cancel, you're out of luck.
The only way to get a refund is to contact Norton directly. If you're ready to go cold turkey, follow these steps.
In a browser, open support.norton.com.
Scroll down until you see nine buttons arranged in a 3x3 grid. Find the second button down in the left-hand column, Contact us, and click on it.
Enter the email address for your Norton account. Check that inbox for a verification code, then enter it in the next box and click Verify.
When the live chat asks you what you need help with, select Purchase & Billing, then Request refund. Give a reason in the dropdown menu.
As usual, be persistent until you get a message in writing that your refund will be processed. Wait at least three days for the money to appear.
Sam Chapman for Engadget
If you subscribed through the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, you'll have to cancel through the same platform where you started. Just go into the subscriptions page of the store's mobile app, find your Norton VPN subscription and click the Cancel button beside it. After that, just follow the prompts, then request a refund using the steps above.
How to uninstall Norton VPN
To get your money back from Norton, you can't just shut off auto-renewal. You'll have to cancel your plan immediately and delete all Norton apps from your devices. I recommend following these steps even if you aren't eligible for a refund, since Norton software is notoriously hard to uninstall and will crop back up if you don't completely root it out.
On Android and iOS, uninstalling Norton VPN is relatively easy — after cancelling your subscription, delete it like you would any other app. Things are a bit trickier on the desktop OSes. On Windows, hold the Windows key and press R to make a black box appear. Type appwiz.cpl and hit Enter. A list of programs should appear; click on Norton VPN, then click Uninstall/Change and follow the instructions.
On a Mac, open your Applications folder and find Norton VPN. Click the app icon and drag it to the trash. This should start a separate program called Norton Uninstaller. Click OK, enter your password if asked, then click Uninstall. Finally, you'll need to restart your computer to finish uninstalling.
Norton VPN alternatives
Once you've dispensed with Norton VPN, you can get started with a provider that fits your needs better. Proton VPN, my current top pick in our guide to the best VPNs, takes privacy more seriously than Norton and has superior app design and speeds. Surfshark is the fastest VPN, NordVPN has the best features and ExpressVPN is the friendliest for beginners.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/vpn/how-to-cancel-norton-vpn-uninstall-it-and-get-your-money-back-150000872.html?src=rss
LG and Ubisoft have teamed up to bring the motion-controlled rhythm game Just Dance Now to LG Smart TVs. The game will be available from December in the LG Gaming Portal for LG TV users in the US and Europe running webOS 22 or later, with no additional hardware required.
Just Dance Now originally launched in 2014 as a mobile app for iOS and Android, before Ubisoft brought the game to Apple TV a year later. A main series spinoff aimed at people who don't own a console, Just Dance Now offers a library of hundreds of songs that span decades of music, which you'll be able to access for free for a limited time each day. If that just isn’t enough dancing time to satisfy you, you can subscribe to one of Ubisoft's paid plans or purchase song packs.
Just Dance Now was originally designed to be played using your phone as a controller, with your handset of choice functioning much like the Wii Remote did in the very first Just Dance game back in 2009. In the LG Gaming Portal version of the game, the motion-sensing LG Magic Remote becomes the peripheral, so you really don't need any extra gear.
Ahead of the December launch, the Just Dance Now app will be available in beta, allowing players to try three songs on the first day, followed by one daily for the remainder for the two-week trial. Ubisoft hasn’t announced the release date for the beta yet.
The LG Gaming Portal is gradually becoming a viable alternative to a console for people with a casual interest in games. The cloud version of Xbox Game Pass joined the platform back in April, and the new and improved GeForce NOW app introduced up to 4K 120Hz game streams on LG TVs a few months ago.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/just-dance-now-is-coming-to-lg-smart-tvs-140042944.html?src=rss
OpenAI has rolled out the capability to create character cameos of your pets, doodles, original personas or even objects in the Sora app, which you can put in your videos. You can start the process by going to your profile page in the Sora app, tapping on the "Create cameo" button and then uploading a video of the character (or pet) you want the model to generate. The company says just a few seconds of footage are enough, and you can even use old Sora-generated videos as reference.
You can then give your character a display name and describe how you want the model to animate it. In the example OpenAI uploaded, for instance, the description for a wicked green witch character reads: "She glides with a mysterious, whimsical grace, speaks in rhymes when casting spells, and her pointed hat always tilts as if listening to secrets on the wind." You can choose permissions for each character you create. Under the "Who can use this" permissions section, you can choose between several options: Only me, People I approve, Mutuals, Everyone and Everyone (excluding specific sets of users). Whenever you want to generate a Sora video with a cameo in it, you can just tag a specific character.
Sora 2 launched with a cameo feature that lets you create an avatar of yourself, but this is a new application of the capability. Cameo, the app that allows users to buy videos from celebrities, just sued OpenAI over trademark violation by using the "cameo" name. It said that OpenAI's use of the word is likely to cause consumer confusion and dilute its brand. OpenAI disagreed "that anyone can claim exclusive ownership over the word 'cameo.'"
In addition to character cameos, OpenAI has introduced "stitching," allowing you to stitch several clips together and connect videos. There's now also a leaderboard that shows the most cameod and most remixed videos.
How to create and use character cameos in the Sora app, as demo'd by lil crabby. pic.twitter.com/bLOH6M4Kt7
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openais-character-cameos-will-let-you-put-pets-and-original-personas-in-sora-videos-123043189.html?src=rss
It looks like Meta's Vibes feed is just the start of the company's pivot toward AI slop. In an earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that "we're going to add yet another huge corpus of content" to Meta's recommendation system, via AI's ability to create and remix content — so you're likely to see even more AI generated posts on Facebook and Instagram.
"Social media has gone through two eras so far. First was when all content was from friends, family, and accounts that you followed directly. The second was when we added all the creator content," he said, seemingly suggesting that AI content will be the third era.
Zuckerberg added that recommendation systems that "deeply" understand AI content are "increasingly valuable" since they can "help you achieve your goals."
He then nodded to Vibes, calling it an example of a new type of content enabled by AI. Retention on the feed "is looking good so far, and its usage keeps growing quickly week over week," he proclaimed. Furthermore, there are more opportunities to build "many more novel types of content aheads, as our new models become ready," Zuckerberg added. To put some numbers to Vibes takeup, Meta CFO Susan Li said that users have generated over 20 billion images in the feed to date.
Meta has already introduced a number of AI features across its social media platforms. Those include in-app photo and video editing via text prompts directly in Instagram Stories, AI chatbots across WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram, and a standalone Meta AI app that includes an AI assistant and discovery feed.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-will-add-a-huge-corpus-of-ai-content-into-its-recommendation-system-113027353.html?src=rss
Grammarly is no more, at least with regards to its name. The AI-powered writing assistance tool founded in 2009 has been absorbed into a new software platform called Superhuman. It follows Grammarly’s acquisition of Superhuman Mail earlier this year, with the former taking the somewhat unusual step of adopting its newly obtained company’s name, rather than the other way around.
Superhuman unites Grammarly, Superhuman Mail and the AI work assistant Coda (also acquired by Grammarly in 2025) in one productivity suite, allowing users to access all three tools as part of a single plan. The company has also launched a new AI assistant called Superhuman Go that is included in every Superhuman plan tier and is baked into the Grammarly browser extension for Chrome and Edge.
Superhuman Go’s capabilities include assisting with professional-sounding email responses, fetching information and scheduling meetings. At launch it can connect to your Google Workspace apps and Microsoft Outlook, with the idea being that the AI is always there making suggestions in the background, rather than you needing to ask it for assistance.
Superhuman plans to add additional functionality to Coda and Superhuman Mail, such as turning ideas from meetings into drafts and more effectively organizing your inbox according to your schedule. Its vision for the rebrand is that instead of thinking of Grammarly as a writing agent alone, you utilize all of its different agents and platforms to work more productively.
Anyone previously using Grammarly can now use Superhuman Go, and the Superhuman suite is being bundled into a number of different plans. The $12 per month (billed annually) Pro plan offers unlimited paragraph rewrites and translations in 19 languages — a feature Grammarly added earlier this year — while the Business plan costs $33 per month (billed annually) and includes Superhuman’s mail client.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/grammarly-has-rebranded-to-superhuman-151001417.html?src=rss
Not for the first time this year, Google has been forced to reassure its users that it has not suffered a large-scale data breach that could affect their Gmail accounts. A few months ago the company released an unusual statement intended to put to bed allegations that its email service had been hit with a serious security issue. And it did so again this week, after numerous news outlets published stories suggesting that 183 million passwords may have been compromised in a new breach.
Google has since claimed that this isn’t true in posts on X. It says the listed accounts are likely not fresh victims of an attack, but instead recent additions to the Have I Been Pwned data breach search engine’s database. The website is a free resource that can quickly tell users if their personal data has been hacked. As noted by Bleeping Computer, HIBP’s creator, Troy Hunt, has said in a blog post that over 90 percent of the millions of stolen credentials have been seen before, so are in no way new (16.4 million of addresses were however showing up for the first time in a data breach, according to Hunt).
"Reports of a 'Gmail security breach impacting millions of users' are false," Google said in a statement. "Gmail’s defenses are strong, and users remain protected. The inaccurate reports are stemming from a misunderstanding of infostealer databases, which routinely compile various credential theft activity occurring across the web. It’s not reflective of a new attack aimed at any one person, tool, or platform."
Google does use compilations of open credentials like the one recently uploaded to HIBP to alert its users of possible breaches, and has advised users that turning on 2-step verification and adopting passkeys is more secure than relying on passwords alone, which it notes should always be reset immediately if compromised.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/google-is-once-again-disputing-gmail-was-breached-180031380.html?src=rss
