Oct 31
Police Say Heavily Armed Man Killed Himself Rather Than Carry Out Attack At Colorado Park
Posted in: Today's ChiliPolice say a heavily armed man killed himself rather than carry out an attack at a Colorado amusement park.
Oct 31
Android users can finally join the realm of the easy login life. Google revealed Monday that Credential Manager will arrive on Android devices beginning Nov. 1, ushering in the next phase of the company’s conversion to passkeys. This also means Android users will finally have the iPhone’s FaceID-like unlocking…
Oct 31
Hasbro’s 6″ line of Star Wars action figures, the Black Series, launched a decade ago, and has gone on to give us many great representations (and some not so great) of Star Wars heroes and villains from across the galaxy. It is, however, absolutely insane that it will take until 2024 for the line to give us a second Pa…
Oct 31
Last Thursday, Hasbro had an investor’s call to discuss the third quarter, and while Hasbro itself might be going through a rough time, with lower-than-expected earnings, Wizards of the Coast was once again the high earner for the company—bolstered by two big releases.
Oct 31
Apple’s Scary Fast event was an unexpected but welcome treat for Mac fans this season. And in true Halloween slasher movie fashion, Apple has officially ended the life of one of its most controversial laptops: the 13-inch MacBook Pro. For years, this model was an absolute star with its Pro-level specs and impressive build quality. However, as Apple updated and released newer laptops, the 13-inch MacBook Pro started looking less appealing, especially when Apple’s own chips made their way into the Mac. At this point, Apple’s move to discontinue the 13-inch MacBook Pro doesn’t come as a surprise.
The laptop hit a rough patch in 2016 with the introduction of the Touch Bar, which came as a part of a major redesign. The new look also included a thinner chassis, changes to the keyboard, a larger trackpad, Touch ID and the removal of all ports except the Thunderbolt ports and a headphone jack. As you may remember, the Touch Bar was a total hit or miss among the masses. Some people loved the innovation and the “magical” Touch Bar while others found it clumsy and not very useful. Apple eventually removed the Touch Bar by introducing the latest 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, but kept it on the 13-inch MacBook Pro.
Beck Diefenbach / Reuters
In 2023, the 13-inch MacBook Pro is a good laptop but it’s just not worth the investment anymore. The base model comes with Apple’s M2 chip, which has given a nice little boost. It has an 8-core CPU, a 10-core GPU and comes standard with 8GB of RAM and 256GB storage, both of which can be bumped up for an additional cost. For day-to-day tasks and light work, it still performs well enough but well enough just doesn’t cut it anymore for a “Pro” laptop. Especially when the new MacBook Air offers so much more and the 14-inch MacBook Pro has a better screen and more ports pro users actually need. Even so, Apple claimed for years that the 13-inch MacBook Pro remains one of its best-selling models. This likely has more to do with its lower price point.
Apple probably kept the model around as a budget-friendly Pro option, starting at $1,299, while the cheapest 14-inch model was $1,999. But with tonight’s introduction of the M3 14-inch MacBook Pro for $1,599, the 13-inch simply no longer makes sense — which would explain Apple’s decision to move away from this one.
Follow all of the news from Apple’s “Scary Fast” October event right here.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-finally-kills-off-the-13-inch-touch-bar-macbook-pro-004008890.html?src=rss
Oct 31
To Pay For Israeli Aid, GOP Wants To Make It More Expensive For You To File Your Taxes
Posted in: Today's ChiliRepublicans are looking at defunding a free digital tax filing system that’s under development by the IRS to instead help pay for weapons for Israel.
Oct 31
X will no longer pay creators for tweets promoting misinformation. Elon Musk said the company is making a “slight change” to its monetization program and that tweets that are fact-checked via community notes will no longer be eligible for payouts as part of X’s revenue-sharing program.
The update appears to be an attempt to remove incentives for high-profile accounts to spread viral misinformation. “The idea is to maximize the incentive for accuracy over sensationalism,” Musk said. X also recently started to require community notes contributors to cite their sources in fact checks.
The latest change comes as researchers, fact checkers and journalists have raised the alarm about the amount of viral misinformation spreading on X amid the ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza. European Union officials have opened an investigation into the company’s handling of misinformation related to the war.
Following Musk’s takeover of Twitter a year ago, the company laid off teams responsible for curating and promoting reputable tweets about breaking news events and removed tools for reporting misinformation in the app. Instead, the company has relied on its crowd-sourced fact checking tool, community notes.
But critics have said that community notes are subject to manipulation and that the user-contributed fact checks are often unable to keep up with the sheer amount of viral falsehoods, particularly those promoted by verified accounts. A recent analysis from NewsGuard, a nonprofit that tracks the spread of misinformation, found that 74 percent of “the most viral posts on X advancing misinformation about the Israel-Hamas War are being pushed by ‘verified’ X accounts.”
As BBC researcher Shayan Sardarizadeh pointed out, the change to make tweets with community notes ineligible for payments has already been criticized by a number of high-profile accounts whose tweets are often “community noted.” Musk added that “any attempts to weaponize @CommunityNotes to demonetize people will be immediately obvious,” but didn’t say how the company would deal with attempts at manipulation. X didn’t respond to a request for comment.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/x-wont-pay-creators-for-tweets-that-get-fact-checked-with-community-notes-174206477.html?src=rss
Oct 30
The St. Louis Cardinals gave its longtime pitcher a Lagotto Romagnolo puppy named “Louie” and Wainwright says his family fights over who gets to hold the new addition.
Oct 30
Last Thursday, Hasbro had an investor’s call to discuss the third quarter, and while Hasbro itself might be going through a rough time, with lower-than-expected earnings, Wizards of the Coast was once again the high earner for the company—bolstered by two big releases.
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