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Obsessed with throwing money and resources at AI in any way they can, the likes of OpenAI, NVIDIA, Google and Amazon all just got a surprise. Out of seemingly nowhere, Chinese AI assistant DeepSeek is suddenly the top-rated free app on Apples App Store in the US and elsewhere, beating more familiar names, like ChatGPT. The open-source DeepSeek V3 model reportedly requires far less computing power than its competitors and, depending on who you believe, was developed for under $6 million. Shocks all around especially for OpenAI and all the billions it has floating around. Focusing on coding and research, DeepSeeks models are similar to other AI assistants youve heard of. Its first DeepSeek-R1 release is available under an MIT license, so it can be used commercially without restrictions. How does it compare with the far pricier US rivals now China is unable to import the most powerful AI chips? Well, to start with, DeepSeeks founder Liang Wenfeng reportedly stockpiled NVIDIA A100 chips before the US export ban and is pairing those with less powerful chips from China. An MIT Review report also suggests the side effect of the US sanctions are innovations that focus on efficiency and collaboration. All the attention and a small financial market wobble has put DeepSeek in the crosshairs for large-scale malicious attacks. Those cyberattacks mean new user registration may be slow, so if youre intrigued, youll have to wait to check it out. Mat Smith Get this delivered direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here! The biggest tech stories you missed Everything Samsung announced at the Galaxy S25 Unpacked event Curvy sides, flat edges: The Galaxy S25 and the arbitrary shape of smartphones NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 review: Pure AI excess for $2,000 What if the Nintendo Switch 2 is too big? The iPhone notch might return A new SE model may almost be here. Majin Bu Device leaker Majin Bu shared on X what they claim is the new iPhone SE 4. As proof, they posted a video of the device from all angles and four photos of both a black and a white model from the back. With a single camera (gasp!) and a smaller-seeming body to current iPhones, the big twist is the return to a notch. At this point, all iPhones available from Apples store (aside from the iPhone 14) have a Dynamic Island cutout instead of the notch. Traditionally, the SE series has a throwback hardware design, so this would make sense. And hey, the Pixel 8a needs some competition. While the dummy phones leaked look convincing, Majin Bu has missed with some of their predictions and leaks in the past. So pinch of salt, and all that. Continue reading. Heres a Darth Vader Tamagotchi With a silicone helmet case. Bandai Namco Yes. Yessssss. Continue reading. Blueskys moderation report shows how quickly harmful content grew Reports increased 17x compared to 2023. As X continued to walk the plank, Bluesky experienced explosive growth last year. That meant a big ramp up in its moderation efforts. Bluesky said user numbers jumped from 2.9 million users to nearly 26 million. Its moderators received 17 times the number of user reports in 2023 6.48 million in 2024 compared to 358,000 the previous year. The bulk of these reports were regarding harassment, trolling or intolerance, spam and misleading content (including impersonation and misinformation). Moderators took down 66,308 accounts in 2024, while its automated systems took down 35,842 spam and bot profiles. Continue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-121642950.html?src=rss
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Independent book stores can now get a cut of the ebook market. Today, Bookshop.org announced the addition of ebooks to its website. As it does with physical books, the online retailer prompts shoppers to designate a local book store at checkout, then sends part of the purchase price to that store. Since it started selling physical volumes in 2020, Bookshop.org has funneled more than $35 million to indie booksellers. During a recent chat, CEO Andy Hunter told me hundreds of stores have credited Bookshop.org with their ability to stay in business through the shutdowns caused by the pandemic. Now through the added ebook sales, those stores will have one more revenue stream and shoppers will have another way to support neighborhood stores. "It's not a good business strategy to say, 'Come to us for your books, but when you need an ebook, go to Amazon'" he said. The site will offer more than three million ebooks from every major publisher and the entire profit from the sale will go to the customer's chosen store. If a user doesn't designate a store, profits will partly channel into a pool for all participating bookstores and the rest will return to Bookshop.org. The company will also make money from publisher ads on its website. Because ebook prices are set by the publisher, titles will cost the same as they do from Amazon, Kobo, Google Books or elsewhere. In addition to the new category, Bookshop.org is also introducing a new reader app for iOS and Android devices today. Through the app, readers can explore curated lists of books, search the ebook catalog, read previews and add books to their wishlist. You'll still need to head to Bookshop.org on a browser to make purchases just as you do with other ebook sellers so they can avoid Apple and Google's steep in-app billing commissions. (Though, on tangental note, Bookshop.org's website now accepts Google and Apple Pay.) Reading books on the app should feel familiar to anyone who's used a tablet or smartphone ereader app, offering highlights, annotations, type and font adjustments and text searches. In addition to swipeable pages, you can also set the text to a vertical endless scroll mode, an option I haven't seen in other ereader apps. Bookshop.org Probably the most intriguing feature is Quote Sharing. As I was talking with Hunter, he pointed out that when people share quotes from books on social media, it's often via a typed-out quote alongside a picture snapped of the physical page or the cover of the book. If you want to read that book, you're going to have to put in a little work to find it and buy it. With Quote Sharing in the Bookshop.org app or browser reader, up to 300 characters of text can be highlighted and shared on Facebook, X, Threads, Bluesky or anywhere else you can share regular weblinks. The generated link creates a formatted post with the quote, along with the book cover image. Anyone who clicks the link will be taken to a webpage with the quote in context, above a button to buy the book. Hunter says the goal is to "make conversations around books feel like a native part of the social web." As someone who is invested in ereaders, I asked whether Bookshop.org ebooks would be readable on Kindles or Kobos. Hunter told me his company is already working on compatibility with Kobo devices and has also been in talks with Amazon to potentially allow Kindles to display titles purchased from Bookshop.org. Integration with Kobo could come as early as this year; Amazon cooperation will likely take longer. Another forthcoming feature allows indie booksellers to sell ebooks directly from the bookstore's own website using Bookshop.org's tech. That partnership won't be available at launch but should go live in spring of 2025. Hunter told me a story from the initial investor phase from the print-only iteration of Bookshop.org. When potential investors learned he couldn't beat Amazon on price or speed, he was laughed out of the room. They assumed no one would be willing to pay more or wait longer for a book, no matter how worthy they thought independent bookstores might be. Five-plus years later, not only were those investors proven wrong the company's continued existence suggests at least some people can spare a few extra bucks and some patience to support bookstores now with ebooks, Bookshop.org can indeed match Amazon on both price and speed, since even the largest e-retailer can't discount ebooks and delivery is instantaneous no matter where you buy from.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/tablets/bookshoporg-is-now-selling-ebooks-113033975.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
Yes, Google Maps is renaming the "Gulf of Mexico" to the "Gulf of America," but you won't see it when you open the app just yet. In a series of tweets, the News from Google account has revealed that the Maps app will roll out an update with the name change after the US government updates the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), which serves as the "federal and national standard for geographic nomenclature." Google Maps will also change the name of the highest mountain peak in North America from Denali, the name given to it by Alaskan Natives, to Mount McKinley when GNIS reflects its new official designation. When that happens, we will update Google Maps in the U.S. quickly to show Mount McKinley and Gulf of America. News from Google (@NewsFromGoogle) January 27, 2025 Google said it's a longstanding practice for the company to apply name changes in Maps only after they've been updated in official government resources. President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week to change the body of water's name, and the Interior Department announced on Friday that it's now officially known as the Gulf of America. However, only users in the US will see it labeled as such. It will still be called the Gulf of Mexico for users in Mexico, while users from outside either country will see both names in their Google Maps app. Google said that another official longstanding practice is to show official local names when they vary between countries, and as Reuters notes, it has applied the rule to many other areas with naming and territorial disputes like the Sea of Japan. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/google-maps-will-rename-gulf-of-mexico-to-gulf-of-america-but-only-for-us-users-043726929.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
Pebble is back, baby. On Monday, Google (which owns Pebbles IP via its Fitbit purchase) open-sourced the OG modern smartwatchs software. Although that paves the road for anyone to make new Pebble-esque wearables (or custom firmware for the old models), one high-profile figure has already raised his hand: Pebble creator Eric Migicovsky. Google says the open-source PebbleOS includes most of the softwares source code. The only exceptions are proprietary code for chipset and Bluetooth software. Googles Matthieu Jeanson, Katharine Berry and Liam McLoughlin wrote that developers face a non-trivial amount of work in finding replacements for the stripped-out pieces of code. Migicovsky says he spurred the project by asking friends at Google if they would open-source the software. The Pebble founder, who went on to run Beeper (the iMessage for Android app that sparked a short-lived war with Apple), wrote on his blog that he wants his planned smartwatch to be a modern take on the original Pebble a spiritual successor that doesnt try to reinvent the wheel. No one makes a smartwatch with the core set of features I want, he wrote. I had really, really, really hoped that someone else would come along and build a Pebble replacement. But no one has. Kickstarter His wishlist for the as-yet-unnamed product includes an always-on e-paper screen, long battery life, a simple and beautiful user experience, physical buttons and hackability (like custom watch faces). Those were indeed the hallmarks of the innovative and charming Pebble, which broke Kickstarter records and preceded Apple, Samsung and Googles models by several years. The new watch were building basically has the same specs and features as Pebble, though with some fun new stuff as well, the Pebble founder wrote, adding that his team still needs to nail down the products exact specifications and timeline. It runs open source PebbleOS, and its compatible with all Pebble apps and watchfaces. Developers can get Googles open-sourced Pebble OS on GitHub. And if youre interested in Migicovskys as-yet-unnamed spiritual successor to the 2013 smartwatch, you can sign up for updates on its webpage.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/google-open-sources-the-pebble-smartwatchs-software-and-its-creator-is-making-a-new-model-220526568.html?src=rss
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On the same day Apple launched iOS 18.3 to the public, its dedicated sports app got a few tweaks including beefed-up soccer coverage. Apple Sports also now has a new way to navigate favorites and broadcast info for each games page. Apple has invested heavily in soccer for Apple TV+, scooping up the exclusive global rights to Major League Soccer (MLS) until 2033. The streaming service also has several exclusive MLS documentaries, including one about Lionel Messi. His arrival in Americas premier soccer league quickly doubled the services subscriptions. In a far less expensive move, todays Apple Sports update adds the ability to track match scores from Englands FA Cup, the EFL Championship and the League Cup. The update adds a couple of UI tweaks, too. You can now swipe left or right to quickly scroll through your favorite teams and leagues. And its easier to find out how to watch games: Each page now shows which network each nationally broadcast game is on. Apple Sports arrived in February 2024 as an easy, ad-free way to track scores and standings including on the iPhones Lock Screen through Live Activities. The app launched with support for basketball, hockey and soccer, the three major sports active last February. It was later updated to include baseball and football ahead of MLB and the NFLs opening days. In December, Apple added the ability to schedule Live Activities and a tab in the Play-By-Play section for video highlights.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/apple-sports-adds-the-fa-cup-and-other-uk-soccer-tournies-202654579.html?src=rss
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