Hasta La Gadget!

Finally, a color Kindle. Amazon, the dominant force in ereaders, finally brought color eink to its series of devices — and we’ve reviewed it. The Kindle Colorsoft is a solid premium ereader, ideal for readers of comics and graphic novels. The company has upgraded page-turn speed and a handy pinch-to-zoom function makes it easier to fully enjoy detailed images.

But at $280, it’s expensive. More expensive, even, than rival color ereaders. However, it’s hard to argue against the convenience and ubiquity of the Kindle ecosystem. The library is seemingly endless (with regular discounts on books and titles you plan to read), supplemented by Prime Reading and Kindle Unlimited. If you’re tempted, check out our detailed review and comparisons with other ereaders.

— Mat Smith

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The biggest tech stories you missed

Election 2024: How will the candidates regulate AI?

X’s Community Notes feature has one job, and it’s failing to do it

Meta AI has more than 500 million users

DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro review

Finally, a worthy GoPro rival.

Engadget

With the Action 5 Pro, DJI finally has a worthy rival to GoPro and Insta360 action cam. With excellent battery life and solid image quality, the only drawback is slightly less-sharp video. However, if low-light performance is key, head straight for the Action 5 Pro. DJI’s new action cam costs $350, while the Hero 13 Pro and Insta360’s Ace Pro 2 are $400. The DJI beats both in battery life and is on par with its rivals when it comes to stabilization.

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Apple’s MacBook Pros get an M4 upgrade, including the new M4 Max chip

They also feature slightly brighter screens and better webcams.

Following the 24-inch iMac, then the adorable new Mac mini, Apple is also bringing its M4 chips to the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro too. And, in addition to the base M4 chip and the M4 Pro, they can also be configured with the newly announced M4 Max. Alongside the internal spec boost, the new MacBook Pros have slightly brighter screens, which can reach up to 1,000 nits of SDR brightness (compared to 600 nits before), and there’s also a nano-texture display option, which drastically reduces glare for people working in very bright environments or direct sunlight.

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Nothing’s first community-designed smartphone glows in the dark

That perfect Halloween announcement.

Nothing

It doesn’t go bump in the night, but it does glow.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-111538190.html?src=rss

Google CEO Sundar Pichai just revealed that AI now generates more than a quarter of new code for its products, according to a company earnings call transcribed by Ars Technica. In other words, AI tools are already having an absolutely mammoth impact on the development of software.

Pichai did say that human programmers oversee the computer-generated code, which is something. The CEO noted that AI coding helps with “boosting productivity and efficiency,” ensuring that engineers “do more and move faster.”

There’s no two ways around it. 25 percent is a lot, and Google is just one company relying on AI algorithms to perform complex coding tasks. According to Stack Overflow’s 2024 Developer Survey, over 75 percent of respondents are already using or are “planning to use” AI tools to assist with software development. Another survey by GitHub indicated that 92 percent of US-based developers are currently using AI coding tools.

This leads us to the rampaging elephant in the room. As AI continues to gobble up coding tasks, human experience starts to dwindle. This could eventually lead to a decreased knowledge base in which humans don’t know how to fix errors created by AI algorithms that were, in turn, created by other AI algorithms. We could be staring down an ouroboros of confusion where it’s nearly impossible to detect bugs amidst generations of AI code. Fun times!

We aren’t quite there yet, but AI-assisted coding shows no signs of slowing down. The process started its meteoric rise back in 2022 when GitHub widely launched its Copilot program. Since then, companies like Anthropic, Meta, Google and OpenAI have all released AI-coding software suites. GitHub recently announced that Copilot can now be used with models from Anthropic and Google, in addition to OpenAI.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-ceo-says-a-quarter-of-the-companys-new-code-is-already-ai-generated-180038896.html?src=rss

Google Wallet for kids will roll out in 2025. “Following the positive response of tap-to-pay on Fitbit Ace LTE devices, we’re expanding tap-to-pay for kids to Google Wallet,” Google wrote in a statement to 9to5Google, which first reported on it. Parents could approve credit and debit cards added to children’s phones, and Google’s Family Link would let them view transactions and easily approve or remove cards.

The service would build on the tap-to-pay functionality in Google’s Fitbit Ace LTE kids’ activity tracker. The expansion would make the Google Wallet app available for Android phone-using children whose parents have set up Family Link and approved access.

Any of the parents’ existing payment cards in Google Wallet could be used for the kids’ spinoff. When paying, children would have to approve tap-to-pay purchases using standard authentication options (fingerprint, facial recognition, PIN or password). At launch, the service is said to support gift cards and event tickets but not online purchases, identification or health cards.

Apple already has a similar take on children’s purchases. Families in the company’s ecosystem can let their kids use Apple Pay in stores and online or send money through Messages with Apple Cash Family.

9to5Google says Google’s kids’ payments feature will roll out next year for “some Google Wallet users in several countries,” including the US. A wider rollout is expected at some point after that.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/children-with-android-phones-will-be-able-to-use-google-wallets-tap-to-pay-next-year-182650364.html?src=rss

The Daft Punk anime Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem is coming to movie theaters on December 12, for one night only. It’ll be screened in over 800 cinemas in more than 40 countries throughout the globe. Tickets go on sale November 13, so bookmark this page to make sure you snag one before they sell out.

For the uninitiated, the film was first released back in 2003 and was a joint collaboration between Daft Punk and manga legend Leiji Matsumoto, who passed away last year. The anime acts as a visual companion piece to Daft Punk’s album Discovery. There’s no dialogue and minimal sound effects. It’s all about the music.

There is a plot, but it’s more a loose amalgamation of sci-fi ideas that act as a springboard to play Daft Punk songs. For instance, the band’s iconic “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” begins when the lead character gets a hold of some high-tech sunglasses. It is, however, a visually stunning affair.

To that end, this is a 4K remaster of the original. However, there has already been a bit of controversy surrounding this remaster. Distributor Trafalgar allegedly used AI to upscale some of the footage and, well, people don’t seem to be happy with the results. In any event, we don’t have too long to see how it all came together.

Daft Punk

To commemorate this limited theatrical release, the band’s releasing a whole bunch of affiliated merch. There’s a physical edition of the film, complete with the original Japanese artwork, stickers and a collectible Daft Club card. Fans can also purchase the soundtrack album in multiple formats, including gold vinyl and numbered CDs.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/the-daft-punk-anime-interstella-5555-is-coming-to-theaters-for-one-night-only-184501194.html?src=rss

It’s no secret that X has become an even bigger cesspool of misleading information, unchecked claims and flat-out falsities since Elon Musk took over. Two new reports from The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) and The Washington Post reveal that the safeguards Musk removed and replaced aren’t controlling X’s problems with misinformation.

The CCDH published a report on its investigation into X’s Community Notes feature, a user-driven reporting system in which anonymous users write and rate correction for misleading posts. Researchers took a sample of 283 misleading election posts from the social media platform that received proposed Community Notes between January 1 and August 25. The report says that 209 of those misleading sample posts did not show the Community Notes correction to all X users. Even more alarming, the 209 misleading posts in question racked up 2.2 billion views.

The Washington Post followed the CCDH’s report with its own investigation into X’s Community Notes feature and found that X’s problems with misinformation go far beyond the election.

Former President Donald Trump made the bold claim during his only presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris that Haitians were eating people’s pets in Springfield, Ohio. Moderator and ABC news anchor David Muir corrected Trump’s statement as false because no such cases were reported to local police or government entities. The fact checking website Politifact rated Trump’s claim its lowest false rating of “Pants on Fire.” That didn’t stop this falsehood from spreading across X among conservative-leaning users.

The Post found that an account called End Wokeness with a following of 3.1 million X users started disseminating the former President’s claim about Haitian immigrants. The post remained unchecked for four days until one Community Notes user flagged the post as incorrect, citing five different articles to back up the correction. Unfortunately, the note failed to garner enough votes to label the post as false and it went uncorrected. As of Wednesday, the post is still on @EndWokeness’ account with a Community Note where it’s racked up 4.9 million views.

Musk’s account hasn’t helped the problem. The Post reports that he’s become “one of the X users most often targeted with proposed Community Notes” with one of 10 posts receiving a proposed correction note.

The publication cited a July post from @elonmusk containing a manipulated video of Harris spouting about President Joe Biden’s “senility” and how she became the nominee because she’s “the ultimate diversity hire.” You know where this is going. There’s no Community Notes or correction and the post is still on X even though thousands of replies from other X users are pointing out that it’s a fake. The post has a whopping 136.6 million views.

“Community Notes maintains a high bar to make notes effective and maintain trust across perspectives, and thousands of election and politics related notes have cleared that bar in 2024,” Keith Coleman, VP of product at X, said in a statement. “In the last month alone, hundreds of such notes have been shown on thousands of posts and have been seen tens of millions of times. It is because of their quality that notes are so effective.” Coleman, who oversees Community Notes, pointed to previous academic research into the feature. That research includes studies that found posts with a Community Note were 60 percent less likely to be shared, and that Community Notes result in an 80 percent uptick in post deletions. 

The CCDH is one of Musk and X’s most vocal opponents. The British non-profit continually monitors Musk’s account for false posts that failed to earn a Community Note, particularly when it comes to the presidential election. CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed said in August that X “is failing woefully to contain the kind of algorithmically-boosted incitement that we all know can lead to real world violence. X took the CCDH to court over claims the non-profit created a “scare campaign” to bring down its advertising revenue. A US district court judge dismissed the lawsuit in March.

Update October 30, 2024, 9 PM ET: This story has been updated to add a statement and additional information from X VP of Product Keith Coleman.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/xs-community-notes-feature-has-one-job-and-its-failing-to-do-it-202645987.html?src=rss