With the help of modern machine learning technology, The Beatles were able to release their song Now and Then in late 2023. The song contains vocals recorded from around 50 years ago and a guitar track from 1995, but technological limitations at the time prevented it from seeing the light of day without serious audio issues. Today, after being nominated in November 2024 for two Grammys, Now and Then won one for Best Rock Performance.
When the demo was first recorded, John Lennons singing and piano were on the same audio track, and separating them was impossible. Fortunately, AI can now do that without much bleed or loss. The surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, were able to complete the song by recording new bass and drum parts and releasing it almost 30 years later.
Sean Ono Lennon, the son of the late Beatle, accepted the trophy in his fathers stead. Now and Then was also nominated for Record of the Year but lost to Kendrick Lamars Not Like Us.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/music/ai-won-the-beatles-a-grammy-55-years-after-they-broke-up-141743908.html?src=rss
The problem with good quality earbuds is that, of course, they don't come cheap. So, when a sale comes along that makes them more affordable, we're all over it. Right now, you can get the Apple AirPods Pro 2 for $169, down from $249 a 32 percent discount. They fell to a record low of $154 over the holidays, but this price is the best we've seen yet in 2025.
Apple's AirPods Pro 2 came out in 2022 and yet we still rate them the best wireless earbuds for iPhone. At the time, we gave them a score of 88 thanks to big improvements from their predecessor, including fantastic sound and an amazing transparency mode. They'll last you six hours at a time with ANC on or seven hours without it.
Notably, Apple's newest generation of earbuds are also on sale. The AirPods 4 are down to a new all-time low price of $100, from $129, thanks to a 22 percent discount. We also gave the AirPods 4 an 88 in our review, noting their improved fit, comfort and sound quality. Their biggest drawback is the lack of ANC but, if you don't need that, then this is a great deal.
Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/apples-airpods-pro-2-are-back-on-sale-for-170-140656651.html?src=rss
Samsung's executive chairman Jay Y. Lee has been cleared of criminal charges by South Korea's second-highest court, Bloomberg reported. Earlier on Monday, the Seoul High Court upheld an earlier decision acquitting Lee of stock manipulation and accounting fraud charges over a 2015 merger. The ruling will allow Lee to focus on Samsung's mobile and chip businesses, which have seen declining profits over the past couple of years. Yee has consistently denied committing any crimes.
The prosecution can still appeal to the Korea's Supreme Court, but that would be unlikely to succeed since no new arguments could be presented, experts say. "It has been a very long time in the investigation and trial of this case," said Samsung lawyer Kim You Jin in a statement. "We hope that with this verdict, the defendants can now focus on their work."
Back in 2017, prosecutors accused Lee of manipulating the share price of two Samsung subsidiaries to smooth the way for a merger that allowed him to consolidate his power. In early 2024, however, the court ruled that the prosecutors failed to prove that. "It is hard to say that Lee Jae-yong [aka Jay Y. Lee]... spearheaded the merger, and that the merger was done just for the sake of Lees succession," a judge stated in the ruling.
At the time, the decision was hailed by business groups, but not everyone in the country agreed. "The ruling will free Lee of legal risks, but I am at a loss for words in terms of the countrys economic justice," Park Ju-geun, head of corporate thinktank Leaders Index, told The Financial Times in February 2024. "This goes totally against all previous court rulings on the merger."
Lee was originally sentenced to five years in prison in 2017 after being found guilty of bribing public officials over the same merger, but the Supreme Court overturned that decision and ordered the case to be retried. In that retrial, Lee was sentenced to two-and-a-half years of prison time in early 2021, then paroled half a year later (Korea's former president Park Geun-hye also went to jail for her role in the same affair.) In 2022, Lee was pardoned by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was himself recently impeached and charged with insurrection over a martial law attempt. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/samsung-leader-cleared-of-fraud-charges-after-winning-appeal-130056498.html?src=rss
Theres no two ways about it, theres a newfound sense of urgency at OpenAI. Two days after releasing o3-mini to the world, the company made a surprise announcement on Sunday evening, revealing Deep Research. The new feature allows ChatGPT to find, analyze and synthesize hundreds of websites and online sources to create reports at the level of a research analyst.
On top of the usual text questions, users can upload files, including PDFs and spreadsheets, when prompting ChatGPT in this way. The chatbot will then take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes to compile an answer, a side panel documenting the agents progress and citations as it works. It accomplishes in tens of minutes what would take a human many hours, OpenAI says of the new feature.
Our ultimate aspiration is a model that can uncover and discover new knowledge for itself, said Mark Chen, chief research officer at OpenAI, during the companys reveal livestream. Its core to our [artificial general intelligence] roadmap.
As far as limitations go, OpenAI says ChatGPT can sometimes hallucinate facts or make incorrect inferences when conducting Deep Research, though at a notably lower rate than other current models. Additionally, the agent may sometimes struggle to differentiate between authoritative information and rumors. Users may also notice some formatting errors. We expect all these issues to quickly improve with more usage and time, the company notes.
If all of this sounds familiar, its because Googles Advanced suite includes its own Deep Research feature, which not only shares the same name but broadly offers the same set of capabilities as well. One significant difference between the two is that Google offers access to Gemini Advanced through its $20 per month One AI Premium plan. By contrast, youll need a $200 per month ChatGPT Pro plan to start using OpenAIs version of Deep Research today.
Deep research in ChatGPT is currently very compute intensive, the company reasons, adding it will limit Pro users to 100 queries per month. The longer it takes to research a query, the more inference compute is required.
OpenAI says its working on a version of Deep Research powered by a smaller, more cost-effective model. In turn, that will allow the company to offer significantly higher rate limits. In the meantime, OpenAI hopes to get the tool in the hands of Plus users in about a month, following a round of safety testing. As with most of the companys other recent releases, European users will need to wait before they can try out the tool for themselves, with Deep Research not yet available to people in the UK, Switzerland and the broader European economic zone.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/chatgpts-deep-research-tool-can-create-reports-from-hundreds-of-online-sources-022223298.html?src=rss
OpenAI announced on X that its hosting a livestream from Tokyo tonight, offering no more context beyond, Deep Research. (Didn't Google already take that name for Gemini?) Theres no link yet, just a note to stay tuned. The stream is scheduled for 7PM ET (4PM PT/ 9AM JST).
Deep ResearchLive from Tokyo4pm PT / 9am JSTStay tuned for link to livestream. OpenAI (@OpenAI) February 2, 2025
Just a few days ago, OpenAI released its new reasoning model, o3-mini. The company says it produces more accurate and clearer answers, with stronger reasoning abilities than its predecessor, and works with search to find up-to-date answers with links to relevant web sources. CEO Sam Altman and other members of the OpenAI team just held an AMA on Reddit on Friday to discuss the new model. And a week before that, OpenAI introduced its new Operator tool, a Computer-Using Agent that it said can go to the web to perform tasks for you.
At the same time, we've seen the sudden rise of DeepSeek, the Chinese AI assistant app that was released at the end of January and spiked in popularity on app stores last week. Following all the initial hype, a report from the Wall Street Journal said OpenAI is investigating whether its models were used to train DeepSeek.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-announces-surprise-deep-research-stream-tonight-220708906.html?src=rss
The long-awaited Powerbeats Pro 2 could make their official debut in little more than a week from now. In the Power On newsletter, Mark Gurman reports that sources have told him the $250 earbuds will arrive on February 11 and boast heart-rate monitoring on top of upgrades like an H2 chip and improvements to noise cancellation. We should also see some new colors, like orange, according to Gurman. Beats first teased the upcoming launch of the Powerbeats Pro 2 back in September, revealing only that theyd drop in 2025, and has since been posting photos on Instagram of athletes rocking them.
Apple is also reportedly working on a new event invitation service for iCloud that sounds like it could rival the likes of Partiful and Calendly. The details are scant, but Gurman reports that the iCloud-based service code-named Confetti offers a new way to invite people to parties, functions and meetings. It could be introduced as soon as this week, he notes. Apple recently made some updates to its Calendar app with the rollout of iOS 18, like a new month overview and finally tying in Reminders. Confetti integration could add another convenient planning feature.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/this-month-may-bring-the-powerbeats-pro-2-and-a-new-party-invitation-service-for-icloud-200605528.html?src=rss
On Saturday evening, Trump signed executive orders to impose tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), with a White House fact sheet claiming the move is meant to hold the US largest trading partners accountable to their promises of halting illegal immigration and stopping poisonous fentanyl and other drugs from flowing into our country. The orders put 25 percent additional tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, the one exception being that energy products from Canada will be subject to a 10 percent tariff. Imports from China will also face a 10 percent tariff.
The broad tariffs are expected to take effect on Tuesday and could have ramifications not only for American businesses, but for consumers too. Mexico, Canada and China are the top suppliers of US goods imports, each accounting for hundreds of billions of dollars worth of products coming into the country each year, data from the US Department of Commerce and the US International Trade Commission show. Those products span a wide range of categories, from agriculture to transportation/automotive, fuel, electronics, wood, furniture, alcohol and more.
Mexico and Canada dominate US imports of agricultural goods, with Mexico supplying items like fruits, vegetables and nuts, and the bulk of imported animal products like beef coming from Canada, according to Trading Economics and the US Department of Agriculture. The two countries have also been our top suppliers for transportation equipment, including cars and car parts, and crude oil. Canada is responsible for almost 60 percent of US crude oil imports according to the Congressional Research Service, which noted in a report last month that the new tariffs might affect the U.S. crude oil market and consumer fuel prices.
Imports of electronics have largely come from China, and Mexico follows closely behind. Trading Economics data also show machinery, toys and games, furniture and plastics among the top goods imported from China in recent years. The electronics sector could take an additional hit down the line, as Trump has said he also plans to impose tariffs on imported semiconductors, along with pharmaceuticals and steel.
Leaders from Canada and Mexico have both responded to the tariffs, saying they would impose their own on US goods in retaliation. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Saturday announced a 25 percent tariff on roughly $107 billion (155 billion Canadian dollars) worth of US goods, Reuters reports.
In a statement released after the announcement of the tariffs, John Murphy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Senior Vice President and Head of International, warned that Trumps new tariffs could negatively affect both consumers and the supply chains. The President is right to focus on major problems like our broken border and the scourge of fentanyl, but the imposition of tariffs under IEEPA is unprecedented, wont solve these problems, and will only raise prices for American families and upend supply chains, Murphy said. The Chamber will consult with our members, including main street businesses across the country impacted by this move, to determine next steps to prevent economic harm to Americans.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/trumps-tariffs-on-mexico-canada-and-china-could-drive-up-prices-of-cars-electronics-fuel-food-and-more-172823156.html?src=rss
Microsoft is getting rid of the VPN offered through Microsoft Defender. As spotted by Windows Latest, the company updated its support pages for privacy protection, its built-in VPN, to notify users that the service will end on February 28. The VPN was bundled with Microsoft Defender, which is available to anyone with a personal or family Microsoft 365 subscription, and it offered private browsing by routing your internet traffic through Microsoft servers, up to the monthly data limit of 50GB.
In a statement about the decision posted on the support page, Microsoft said, Our goal is to ensure you, and your family remain safer online. We routinely evaluate the usage and effectiveness of our features. As such, we are removing the privacy protection feature and will invest in new areas that will better align to customer needs. Android users might still see the Microsoft Defender VPN profile in their settings after the expiration date, which theyll need to remove manually if they want it gone. Action is not required by Windows, iOS, and macOS users, Microsoft notes.
The company also says this is the only feature getting killed off for now. According to Microsoft, device protection and identity theft and credit monitoring (US) features will continue.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/microsoft-defenders-vpn-feature-will-be-killed-off-at-the-end-of-february-212313322.html?src=rss
Owners of some early Apple Watch models may be eligible for payment from a $20 million class action settlement. Apple recently agreed to settle a lawsuit that claimed some first generation, Series 1, Series 2, and Series 3 Apple Watches had battery swelling issues that could have caused damage to the devices. The company has denied any wrongdoing and in a statement to TechCrunch said it strongly disagrees with the claims made in the lawsuit, but nonetheless agreed to settle to avoid further litigation. The exact amount of the payments will depend on how many claimants ultimately end up being involved, but its expected to be between $20 to $50 per eligible device.
Theres a full breakdown of eligibility and deadlines on the website for the class action lawsuit, but the main thing to know is that in order to receive payment, you must have reported the issue to Apple in the US between April 24, 2015, and February 6, 2024. Settlement Class Members will receive a payment without the need to submit a claim form, the website notes. You just need to submit your payment information through the settlement website (here) by April 10. Notices of eligibility will be sent out by mail and email.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/apple-has-agreed-to-pay-20-million-to-settle-a-class-action-lawsuit-over-apple-watch-battery-swelling-175616623.html?src=rss
New releases to add to your reading list.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/what-to-read-this-weekend-engrossing-literary-horror-and-a-dark-whimsical-new-comic-series-175906806.html?src=rss
