Bluesky is adding a dislike button as a way to signal the kind of posts you don’t want to see in your Discover feed. The experiment is part of several new ideas Bluesky is exploring to a improve conversations on its platform.

The new experiments Bluesky is running are primarily built around the notion of “social proximity.” The company says it’s aiming to build a system that maps your place in a “social neighborhood” of “people you already interact with or would likely enjoy knowing.” By prioritizing replies and posts from the people in your general “neighborhood,” the company believes it can make conversations “feel more relevant, familiar, and less prone to misunderstandings.” Following that logic, the beta test of the dislike button (which sounds private, rather than public-facing) will “help the system understand what kinds of posts you’d prefer to see less of,” but could also affect reply rankings in your threads and in the threads of other people in your social neighborhood. 

The social platform already offers a way to limit replies to only people who follow you, as Bluesky CTO Paul Frazee noted in a recent post, but the company doesn’t “want to make that the only option.” Bluesky is also experimenting with adjusting how the Reply button works by making you see the whole thread first when you tap the button, rather than dumping straight into a new blank post. Combined with a new model for detecting bad replies, the company thinks it’ll improve the general social climate.

Charitably, these tweaks sound like another way Bluesky is trying to give users more control over what they see on the platform, in the same way it does with things like notifications. Less charitably, you could read the “social neighborhood” concept as a way to entrench users in their “filter bubble” rather than address larger moderation issues.

Recently, Bluesky has been criticized by users for failing to remove the accounts of people who allegedly violate the company’s community guidelines. Ensconced in a social neighborhood, those critics wouldn’t necessarily see offensive posts, nor would a poster see their critics. That might lead to less conflict overall, but it could also impact more productive forms of disagreement in the process.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/bluesky-experiments-with-dislikes-and-social-proximity-to-improve-conversations-205226194.html?src=rss

Microsoft is bringing shared audio to Windows 11, allowing you to stream audio across two pairs of wireless headphones, speakers, earbuds, or hearing aids. From a report: The feature is built using the Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) audio codec, and it’s rolling out in preview to Windows 11 Insiders in the Dev and Beta channels. Shared audio comes in handy if you’re watching a movie on a laptop with your friend or family member, or just want to show them new music that you can both stream inside your own wireless headsets. You can use shared audio by connecting Bluetooth LE-supported devices to your Windows 11 PC and then selecting the Shared audio (preview) button in your quick settings menu. Microsoft introduced an LE Audio feature on Windows 11 in August, enabling higher audio quality while using a wireless headset in a game or call.

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Because, just in case you forgot, this IS the internet, these are two videos (I can only assume there’s a frightening amount more) of cat owners playing their felines like bagpipes. It just so happens both the cats in the videos are orange tabbies. Do orange tabbies make the best bagpipes? It would be hard to argue otherwise. What it would not be hard to argue is you probably shouldn’t put your cat’s tail in your mouth. I know where those tails go and SPOILER: it’s the litterbox. I mean unless they’re like my cat and only stand with their front paws in the box and poop on the guest bedroom floor. In that case, catpipe away.

Apple might be dead last in the AI race—at least when you consider competition from companies like OpenAI, Google, and Meta—but that doesn’t mean the company isn’t working on the tech. In fact, it seems most of the work Apple does on AI is behind the scenes: While Apple Intelligence is, well, there, the company’s researchers are working on other ways to improve AI models for everyone, not just Apple users. The latest project? Improving AI image editors based on text prompts.

In a paper published last week, researchers introduced Pico-Banana-400K, a dataset of 400,000 “text-guided” images selected to improve AI-based image editing. Apple believes its image dataset improves upon existing sets by including higher quality images with more diversity: The researchers found that existing datasets either use images produced by AI models, or are not varied enough, which can hinder efforts to improve the models.

Funnily enough, Pico-Banana-400K is designed to work with Nano Banana, Google’s image editing model. Researchers say using Nano Banana, their dataset can generate 35 different types of edits, as well as tap into Gemini-2.5-Pro to asses quality the edits, and whether those edits should remain as part of the overall dataset.

As part of these 400,000 images, there are 258,000 samples of single edits (where Apple compares the original images to one with edits); 56,000 “preference pairs,” which distinguishes between failed and successful edit generations; and 72,000 “multi-turn sequences,” which walks through two to five edits.

Researchers note that different functions had different success rates in this dataset. Global edits and stylization are “easy,” achieving the highest success rates; object semantics and scene context are “moderate;” while precise geometry, layout, and typography are “hard.” The highest performing function, “strong artistic style transfer,” which could include changing an image’s style to “Van Gogh” or anime, has a 93% success rate. The lowest performing function, “change font style or color of visible text if there is text,” only succeeded 58% of the time. Other tested functions include “add new text” (67% success rate), “zoom in” (74% success rate), and “add film grain or vintage filter” (91% success rate).

Unlike many of Apple’s products, which are typically closed to the company’s own platforms, Pico-Banana-400K is open for all researchers and AI developers to use. It’s cool to see Apple researchers contributing to open research like this, especially in an area Apple is generally behind in. Will we actually get an AI-powered Siri anytime soon? Unclear. But it is clear Apple is actively working on AI, perhaps just in its own way.

An anonymous reader shares a report: When Coinbase’s quarterly earnings call wrapped up Thursday, its chief executive, Brian Armstrong, didn’t finish with profit guidance or statements of confidence. He closed it out with a list: “Bitcoin, Ethereum, blockchain, staking and Web3.” Those weren’t random buzzwords. They were part of an $84,000 betting market [non-paywalled source].

Across prediction market platforms Kalshi and Polymarket, users had wagered on which words would be spoken during the call — part of a niche category known as mention markets, where the outcome isn’t tied to earnings, price moves or sports games, but to what people say in some public forum. With the final analyst question complete, several terms listed in contracts were still unsaid. Armstrong ticked them off one by one.

“I was a little distracted because I was tracking the prediction market about what Coinbase will say on their next earnings call,” he said in his parting remarks. “I just want to add here the words Bitcoin, Ethereum, blockchain, staking, and Web3 — to make sure we get those in before the end of the call.” The exchange’s CEO had just moved a market — even if only a small one.

Mention markets are one of the more curious byproducts of the broader prediction market boom, but also one of the more controversial. Platforms like Kalshi, which is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Polymarket, which is in the process of returning to the US market, let users wager on the outcomes of real-world events. That can mean elections, policy decisions, or sports — but also, increasingly, corporate rituals and even common jargon.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Snowflake filed an 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this week after its chief revenue officer gave financial projections in a TikTok video. Mike Gannon told an influencer outside the New York Stock Exchange that the data-storage company would exit the year with just over $4.5 billion in revenue and reach $10 billion in a couple of years.

The filing stated that Gannon is not authorized to disclose financial information on behalf of the company and that investors should not rely on his statements. Snowflake reaffirmed its August guidance of $.395 billion for fiscal year 2026. The video appeared on an account called theschoolofhardknockz and drew more than 555,000 views on TikTok. Gannon told the interviewer he watches the videos all the time.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

While YouTube TV is Engadget’s pick for the best live TV streaming service, it isn’t for everyone, especially right now. Google and Disney’s ongoing carriage dispute means subscribers don’t have access to channels like ABC and ESPN, and recent price hikes means paying for YouTube TV now costs a minimum of $83 a month. 

Whether you’ve switched to another service to hold on to your favorite channels or just want to save some money, there’s ample reasons to cancel or pause your subscription right now. Here’s what you should know about cancelling or pausing your YouTube TV subscription.

How to cancel your subscription on mobile and web

The process for canceling your YouTube TV subscription is the same whether you’re doing it inside the YouTube TV app or from a web or mobile browser, provided you’re paying Google directly for access.

1. Open the YouTube TV website or app.

2. Tap or click on your profile photo.

3. Select Settings (represented by the gear icon).

4. Then, select Membership.

5. Select Manage.

6. Then select Cancel membership, and then Cancel to confirm your cancellation.

Your subscription is now cancelled and you’ll be able to enjoy access to live TV until the end of your current payment period. Any shows or movies you’ve recorded will be saved in your account for 21 days, after which they’ll be deleted. In a support article, Google says it’ll also save your preferences in case you want to resubscribe and start recording content again. The company “may store limited info (such as your home zip code)” for fraud prevention purposes, as well.

If you got your YouTube TV subscription through your mobile carrier or internet provider, the process will vary, but in that case, you’ll have to cancel through them rather than Google.

How to pause your subscription on mobile and web

If you’d prefer to just take a break from paying for YouTube TV, you can also pause your subscription for anywhere from four weeks to six months.

1. Open the YouTube TV website or app.

2. Tap or click on your profile photo.

3. Select Settings (represented by the gear icon).

4. Then, select Membership.

5. Select Manage.

6. Use the on-screen slider to choose how long you want to pause payments for.

7. Select Pause.

Once you’ve paused your subscription, you’ll be able to access YouTube TV until the end of your current billing period, after which you’ll lose access and won’t be charged until the pause is over. Once your chosen amount of time has passed, your subscription will renew automatically. At any point during your pause you can resume using YouTube TV again, provided you’re willing to pay. While there’s no way to extend a pause, you do have the option to pause again once your billing restarts.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/how-to-cancel-or-pause-your-youtube-tv-subscription-192023656.html?src=rss

The road to the second flight of Blue Origin’s heavy-lifting New Glenn rocket got a lot clearer Thursday night with a success test-firing of the launcher’s seven main engines on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.

Standing on a seaside launch pad, the New Glenn rocket ignited its seven BE-4 main engines at 9:59 pm EDT Thursday (01:59 UTC Friday). The engines burned for 38 seconds while the rocket remained firmly on the ground, according to a social media post by Blue Origin.

The hold-down firing of the first stage engines was the final major test of the New Glenn rocket before launch day. Blue Origin previously test-fired the rocket’s second-stage engines. Officials have not announced a target launch date, but sources tell Ars the rocket could be ready for liftoff as soon as November 9.

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If you’re in the Apple ecosystem, AirPods Pro are just about the best earbuds you can buy. They sound great, work across your various Apple devices, and ship with features like Adaptive Transparency and a built-in heart rate sensor. They’re even FDA-certified hearing aids. Not bad for $249.

But all those perks don’t mean Apple’s AirPods Pro are perfect. In fact, you can ask any of the customers complaining of a static noise coming from their AirPods Pro 3, when nothing is actually playing at all. As reported by MacRumors, it appears this is affecting some AirPods Pro 3 users when using Active Noise Cancellation, Adaptive Transparency, and Transparency modes, but only when there’s no active audio playback. (That said, one user claims they can’t even use their AirPods when they play music at 30 dB or below, because the static overtakes it.)

Some users think the noise sounds like static, white noise, a hiss, rain, or like holding a seashell up to your ear, though it’s not clear exactly what’s causing it. There are varying reports as to whether both earbuds are equally affected, or whether the static comes through one earbud in particular, and resetting the AirPods doesn’t appear to help.

It can be tempting to read headlines like this and assume this is a problem plaguing AirPods Pro 3, but these types of anecdotal problems can be tough to gauge. Perhaps a small percentage of AirPods Pro 3 do indeed have this problem, and the affected users are vocal about it on forums and social media. However, I will say I’m a bit taken aback by the number of users who claim to be experiencing the issue in this Reddit thread.

What to do if you hear static with your AirPods Pro 3

If you’re among those experiencing this issue, the first thing you should do is contact Apple Support. If you’re able, take the AirPods directly to the Apple Store. There’s no guarantee this will apply to everyone, but it seems Apple is swapping out affected AirPods for some users. According to this MacRumors contributor, the Apple Store specialist they talked to confirmed that Apple was directing employees to swap out affected units, even if they passed a diagnostic test.

If true, that might suggest this is a hardware issue, one that Apple hasn’t been able to identify yet. However, I’m holding out hope this is a software problem that Apple could fix with an update down the line. Speaking of software, the issue does seem to go away when you turn off noise controls. As a short-term solution, you could avoid using Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency modes, though that takes away quite a few features that make the AirPods Pro so appealing.

2017 feels like another era these days, but if you cast your mind back that far, you might remember Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s vaporware Roadster 2.0. Full of nonsensical-sounding features that impressed people who know a little bit about rockets but nothing about cars, the $200,000 electric car promised to have a suction fan and “cold gas thrusters,” plus 620 miles (1,000 km) of range and a whole load of other stuff that’s never happening.

Plenty of other electric automakers have introduced electric hypercars in the eight years since Musk declared the second Roadster a thing, with no sign of it being any closer to reality, if the latest job postings are accurate. And it seems that over time, a lot of the people who gave the company a hefty deposit—some say interest-free loan—have become tired of waiting and want their money back.

And that’s not quite so easy, it turns out. Musk’s current Silicon Valley rival is the latest to discover this. According to Sam Altman’s social media account, he placed an order for a Roadster on July 11, 2018, with a deposit of $45,000 ($58,206 in today’s money). But after emailing Tesla for a refund, he discovered the email address associated with preorders had been deleted.

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AT&T yesterday sued the advertising industry’s official watchdog over the group’s demand that AT&T stop using its rulings for advertising and promotional purposes.

As previously reported, BBB National Programs’ National Advertising Division (NAD) found that AT&T violated a rule “by issuing a video advertisement and press release that use the NAD process and its findings for promotional purposes,” and sent a cease-and-desist letter to the carrier. The NAD operates the US advertising industry’s system of self-regulation, which is designed to handle complaints that advertisers file against each other and minimize government regulation of false and misleading claims.

While it’s clear that both AT&T and T-Mobile have a history of misleading ad campaigns, AT&T portrays itself as a paragon of honesty in new ads calling T-Mobile “the master of breaking promises.” An AT&T press release about the ad campaign said the NAD “asked T-Mobile to correct their marketing claims 16 times over the last four years,” and an AT&T commercial said T-Mobile has faced more challenges for deceptive ads from competitors than all other telecom providers in that time.

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