Category:

Product Reviews

DAAPrivacyRightIcon
Product Reviews

Meta wants to become the Android of robotics

by admin


Assuming it can turn its Project Orion augmented reality glasses into a real product people can buy, Meta apparently wants to get into robots next. That’s according to Sources‘ Alex Heath, who spoke to Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth and reports that much like Apple, Google and Tesla, Meta is researching robotics.

Unlike those other companies, though, Meta apparently isn’t all that focused on competing in hardware. It has a “Metabot” in the works, but its real goal is to create software that other companies can license, much like Google does with Android. “Software is the bottleneck,” according to Bosworth, and the hope is that the combined powers of Meta’s robotics team — led by Marc Whitten, the former CEO of Cruise —  and its highly publicized Superintelligence Labs can produce a solution.

That work apparently starts with the development of a “world model” that can help a robot “do the software simulation required to animate a dexterous hand,” but will presumably extend to more complicated movements and tasks down the road. In February 2025, Meta was reportedly looking at building a robot that could handle household chores like cleaning or folding laundry. Given how early everything sounds, that’s likely a long way off.

Meta isn’t alone in pursuing robotics. Apple is reportedly working on its own home robots, starting with a table-mounted arm with a display. Tesla has regularly demoed versions of its Optimus robot to the public, though often in highly-controlled scenarios. Meta has yet to realize its goal of usurping the smartphone with AR glasses. Whether or not it does, it sounds like robots will be the thing it burns money on next.



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Suno’s upgraded AI music generator is technically impressive, but still soulless
Product Reviews

Suno’s upgraded AI music generator is technically impressive, but still soulless

by admin


When it’s not trying to fend off lawsuits from major record labels, Suno is still working on refining its AI music creation tool. The latest model, Suno v5, is an obvious technical improvement over its previous version, v4.5+. But it still can’t seem to escape the bland emptiness that pervades most AI art.

There are some across-the-board upgrades in audio quality that are undeniable, like fewer artifacts and clearer separation between instruments. Some tracks produced using v4.5+ can smush all the melodic parts together in a way where the lines between guitar, bass, and synth are muddy at best. But with v5, the mixes are much cleaner.

During a demo, Henry Phipps, a Suno product manager, pointed to a song we had the model generate that included a flute-like synth with what sounded like a ping-pong delay effect on it: “I’ve never heard that before in previous models… what that says to me is that the model understands that this is an isolated sound that’s being affected and needs to be reproduced faithfully in different parts of the stereo field.” Since Suno isn’t actually applying effects in the traditional sense, this means the model is identifying a particular instrument and approximating the sound of a stereo delay because it’s decided that is what it should sound like.

There are no edges to any of the Suno vocals. Everything is bathed in reverb, layered with harmonies, and perfectly on pitch. Even if you explicitly tell it not to do these things, the model just ignores you.

Suno also claims that v5 has a better understanding of genre, though that claim seems questionable from my testing. With some of my prompts like “modern avant R&B with glitchy, but funky drums, atmospheric melodic parts, and breathy vocals,” neither v5 or v4.5+ seemed to be the clear winner in delivering what I had in mind (mostly Kelela’s Take Me Apart). They both got close, giving me downtempo tracks with some moody synths, but they lacked the weirdness I was hoping for.

Neither could Suno quite figure out what I was looking for with “early ‘90s lo-fi indie rock recorded on a 4-track cassette recorder with off key vocals and slightly out of tune guitars” either, but v5 was definitely more off target. Despite everything I tried, I could not get Suno to spit out anything that sounded even remotely like Pavement. The loose slacker noise pop I associate with Slanted and Enchanted was nowhere to be found. Instead, I got bombastic “indie” rock with chunky riffs and clean driving power chords. Suno v5 kept serving up songs that sounded more like Arctic Monkeys than anything released before the turn of the century.

Similarly, in my testing, v5 seemed to struggle with era- or decade-specific prompts at times. When I asked for “late 1970s krautrock,” v4.5+ basically nails it outside of the vocals (more on that later). But v5 often delivers ‘80s-tinged synthpop and tracks that are distinctly more modern sounding, even if they have some of that classic krautrock DNA.

What I will say is that the arrangements that Suno’s v5 model creates are much more complex. Compared to v4.5+, there are more one-off musical flourishes that keep things from getting too repetitive and more varied song structures. Where v4.5+ is usually content to stick with a basic verse-chorus-verse structure (with a bridge tacked on for good measure), v5 would often have pre- or post- chorus sections, multiple bridges or breakdowns, and generally build over the course of a track offering more of an arc than just distinct sections.

It also occasionally delivered interesting results when remixing existing tracks. I uploaded a song from an EP I released a few years back (which probably should have tripped its copyright filter) and look, I’m not going to lie, I kind of liked the way it transcribed parts of my guitar solo into a recurring synth motif and turned my big chord pads into driving arpeggios.

But what was missing in all of these covers of my song that I asked Suno to create was the raw, lo-fi nature of the track that I recorded in my living room at 3AM about six years ago. And that’s kind of a running theme here. While Suno can mimic some of the superficial features of an old recording or a human performance like tape hiss or breaths, it always feels inauthentic.

Phipps admits that he hasn’t heard the vocal model recreate the unique imperfections of a real human performance. In its early messaging about v5, Suno touted its “emotionally rich vocals” and “human-like emotional depth,” but that phrasing is now absent from any public-facing materials. Instead, the company has now chosen to describe the vocals as “natural, authentic,” chalking the change up to a “stylistic choice.”

But even that feels like a stretch. While, yes, compared to v4.5+ the vocals feel more human, they’re still stiff. Phipps explained that “when we perceive a vocal out of Suno [v4.5] to be emotionally flat, I think it’s because it’s just missing some detail that gives it that edge,” and that the higher fidelity of the v5 model delivers that detail.

It’s hard to argue with the technical aspects of that claim — vocal performances are more detailed — but they’re still all painfully generic. Every rock vocal ends up sounding like Imagine Dragons or Mumford and Sons, every R&B song like a sleepwalking Adele or a charmless Ariana Grande.

There are no edges to any of the Suno vocals. Everything is bathed in reverb, layered with harmonies, and perfectly on pitch. Even if you explicitly tell it not to do these things, the model just ignores you. I asked v5 for an “unprocessed emotional solo A cappella female vocal performance with no reverb, no harmonies, no effects, just dry vocals.” The two songs it delivered were bathed in reverb, included additional vocalists harmonizing with the first, and one even had what sounded like a bass accompaniment. (Though, it may have been a voice approximating a bass.) But Phipps wasn’t surprised. The “models don’t yet understand descriptions of specific effects and recording techniques. The way the vocal is performed is most influenced by the lyrics and the general mood,” he said.

So, I fed Suno lyrics that were just different enough from the Rolling Stone’s “Gimme Shelter” to avoid getting flagged for copyright infringement. At first brush it seemed to have all the elements that make the original so devastating. A powerful female vocalist shouting over a full, bluesy arrangement, but it had all of the emotional impact of a dentistry textbook.

When I listen to the “Gimme Shelter,” it’s the way Mary Clayton’s voice cracks as she belts out “rape and murder” during the bridge that causes me to choke up. It’s Robert Smith’s completely out-of-tune warble that conveys the desperation in “Why Can’t I Be You” and the tangible exhaustion in Kurt Cobain’s breath right before he delivers the last line in “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” that tells you this is a man struggling with real demons.

In general, trying to make Suno sound “bad” — out of tune, raw, off key, sloppy — was futile. For all the company’s talk about how “natural” the new model’s vocals sound it lacks the imperfections that often carry the emotional weight of a performance. Suno’s virtual vocalists still sound detached. Model v5 might understand that a particular lyric should be sad, but it has no actual emotional connection to the words, because it’s a pile of code, not an artist.

Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.

  • Close

    Terrence O’Brien

    Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All by Terrence O’Brien

  • AIClose

    AI

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All AI

  • CreatorsClose

    Creators

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Creators

  • EntertainmentClose

    Entertainment

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Entertainment

  • Hands-onClose

    Hands-on

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Hands-on

  • MusicClose

    Music

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Music

  • ReportClose

    Report

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Report

  • ReviewsClose

    Reviews

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Reviews

  • TechClose

    Tech

    Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

    PlusFollow

    See All Tech



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Vernal Standing Desk 1
Product Reviews

Vernal Standing Desk review | TechRadar

by admin



Why you can trust TechRadar


We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Whilst many of the best standing desk brands out there often with several models for different sizes and weight capacities etc. Vernal aims to make the customers life simpler by introducing one frame to do it all at a price of £430 (at time of writing).

With a rated load of 120kg, it should be more than enough to lift anything a regular work from home environment can throw at it.

(Image credit: Future)

Vernal Standing Desk: Unboxing

The desk came as expected in two parts, one large heavy box for the frame and very flat for the desk top.

The frame was well boxed with all parts separated by protective foam, cardboard and plastic. All the assembling accessories were packaged neatly in one box. The screws, tool etc were in a bandolier of plastic, each section marked in size and part number.

All sections of the desk had nice, large and more importantly low tack sticker labels identifying each part. This allowed easy identification of parts and removal of the labels post assembly without leaving that horrible sticky residue.

The desk top was equally well packaged with large rubber like corner protectors. We opted to go with the 120cm x 60cm walnut laminate desk top, the smallest size on offer from Vernal.

You also get a nice, premium feeling beech wood coaster.

(Image credit: Future)

Vernal Standing Desk: Assembly

Assembly of the desk was equally easy. Vernal provided all the tools necessary, namely an M6 Allen Wrench and Phillips Head Screwdriver, so if you have absolutely no tools, you can still put this desk together. We had power tools at out disposal making assembly significantly quicker.

The manual was incredibly clear and easy to follow being like a large book. We start by putting together both the legs, side and mounting brackets together then the desktop. Vernal’s desk tops already have pre threaded metal inserts showing where the mounting brackets are to be screwed in.

This easily done by mounting one set of legs to one side, then sliding the cross bars in before finally sliding the opposite side legs on and screwing it all down. Vernal has also provided the screws as well for non-Vernal desktops along with separate instructions on how to do this.

I chose to put the control panel on the left side and this is where I noted the first issue. The screws appeared to be short, they are only 15mm long. The control panel bracket is quite thick, I measuring the screw against it, I saw that only the tip, about 5mm of it, would bite into the desk.

As expected, on my first try, the screw tore desktop veneer and failed to grip, same thing with the second screw. With no other provided screws, I had to go and rummage in my tool box to get some longer screws.

Once the control panel fiasco was done, it was matter of attaching the control box, connecting all the cables, tidying the underside up before covering it with the decorative cable cover for a neat install and lastly the cable tray hooks.

(Image credit: Future)

The feet are last to go one, before the inaugural flip, they can be positioned center or offset back, the choice/preference is yours. I opted to have it central as I am sure that is how most end users would want it. The desk is then flipped the right way up, to add the finishing touches, two hooks and decorative plates, one on each side.

The last part had me a little concerned, most brands supply all metal parts pre molded or bent to shape. However Vernal has chosen to allow the end user to bend the cable tray themselves along a perforated line.

Whilst I found this easy to do, it did crack the paint on the sheet of metal. I’m not sure how confident others would be doing this for fear of breaking or damaging this part. Hooking on the cable tray is the last part of the assembly save for putting the desk where it needs to go.

(Image credit: Future)

Vernal Standing Desk: In use

Over the past few weeks, the desk was put to the test by me and wife who works exclusively form home. The Vernal standing desk was big upgrade from her smaller Ikea desk, just in terms of real estate.

Vernal claims that this desk should be able to lift 120kgs easily with max load of 160kgs. Sitting all my 100kgs on it I found the desk seem to be slow to raise, and it had to stop a few times under the load of me. However, I did not hold this against the desk as carrying 100kgs is unusual for what is an office desk.

Putting the usual office equipment on it, the Vernal desk had no problem lifting and lowering the load smoothly and quietly.

(Image credit: Future)

The control panel is simple in form yet provides all the needed functions for going up, down and three memory functions. I like that the buttons had to be pushed physically into actuate them as some other tested desk will activate simply by you brushing against the control panel. The panel can be switched between metric and imperial measurements and other settings based on button presses.

(Image credit: Future)

The hooks on either side are a nice feature allowing you to hang handphones or other peripherals off the desk rather than crowding it. Each side of the desk has a Vernal magnetic vanity plate on the legs, ostensibly to hide two screw heads. This is a subjective matter but I would have preferred a more subdued such as black engraved rather than the Silver.

I was initially skeptical about the size of the cable tray as it was so large, however this has proved to be a boon for ease of access from all angles of the desk.

What I wasn’t a fan of were the feet of the desk. The feet, whilst planted firmly on the ground has a “decorative” plate on top that extends beyond the actual feet, this plate is thin and more crucially at toe stubbing level as I found to my detriment.

(Image credit: Future)

Vernal Standing Desk: Final verdict

Overall, the Vernal Standing Desk is a great desk, for the price and simplicity of only having one model puts them ahead. The assembly, large cable tidy tray, head phone hooks and easy to use control panel make this a breeze to own and use.

However, it is sorely let down by the fact that the screws for the control panel are not adequately long enough, some bending is required by the end user and the most egregiously, the toe stubbing feet of the desk.

We’ve listed the best office chairs.



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Hinako fighting an unknown person.
Product Reviews

Silent Hill f’s finicky combat doesn’t actually have to be an issue if you follow these cardinal rules

by admin



If you’ve been following the lead-up to Silent Hill f’s release, then you’ve probably heard some not-so-great things about its combat. I’ll concede that the first few enemy encounters can feel bad, rusty-old-knife-getting-sunk-into-your-shoulder bad. But it does get better, especially once you realise that you can just ignore most of the monsters you come across.

I’m something of a magpie and a hoarder in survival horror games, which means that I collect every single item I come across and then never want to use them. So my solution to this has always been to rely on being as sneaky as possible and perfecting the art of the dodge. And just like most survival games, it works a charm: I found every single note, letter, item, and omamori in Silent Hill f, and I hardly killed a thing.

(Image credit: Konami)

One of the benefits of Silent Hill f being a third-person horror game is that you can play corners; I used this to check corners and alleyways before I walked around or past them. Not only did this save me from getting jumped by knife-wielding mannequins, but it also meant I could see when an enemy was approaching and then wait until it went past to make a move to the next location.


Related articles

The monsters in Silent Hill f really aren’t that smart, and they have pretty short lines of sight when it comes to pursuing you. If you decide to equip the Clam omamori, which will be the first charm you buy from the Shrine shop, then their line of sight will get even shorter, meaning turning a corner will be enough to permanently get them off your tail.

There were even moments when I passed a bunch of enemies and then ran a few paces down the street, only to look back and realise that they had all lost interest in me. You can outpace most of the monsters, so my advice is to go on the run. The only enemies that are worth fighting are the Glowing Monsters in Ebisugaoka and the faceless Shackled Monster in the Dark Shrine, as both of these can catch up to you.

(Image credit: Konami)

There will be areas in which you have to fight a bunch of monsters to unlock the next part, but these aren’t massively common, and the game will give you plenty of items before and after these sections to help you.

Instead of focusing on fighting, scan the map for helpful information and items that will make you stronger. You can sell items in every Shrine for faith, which is the currency in Silent Hill f that can allow you to buy omamori from the shop or upgrade your health, sanity, stamina, and carry number for omamori, although you’ll need an ema for upgrades as well.

Getting more omamori is a must. Here are some of the best ones to help you survive the latter stages of the game:

  • Clam – Decreases enemy line of sight.
  • Whale – You can’t be interrupted by a hit while healing.
  • Crow – Slightly restores health after each enemy defeated.
  • Spider – Greatly decreases weapon durability consumption for light attacks.
  • Suzuran – Perfect dodges become easier to perform.
  • Goat – Take less damage when facing multiple enemies.
  • Dolphin – Increase max sanity after a perfect dodge.
  • Owl – decreases sanity consumption while using Focus.
  • Sakura – Boosts health-restoring items and omamori.
  • Tanuki – Turns physical damage into sanity damage.

After the first couple of runs, I had maxed out my sanity, health, and stamina and also had upgraded to five omamori slots. I focused on making my weapons stronger with the Spider omamori and using less sanity consumption when using the focus ability with the Owl omamori. This meant that I ended up finishing the next three endings with the same starting knife each time, and I had so much stamina that dodging and fighting enemies became ridiculously easy.

But even after I was finished with my upgrades, I still didn’t seek out fights because that’s just not how you’re meant to explore Silent Hill f. If I decided to fight every single enemy I saw, I would still be on my second playthrough. So my advice for anyone entering Ebisugaoka for the first time would be to keep your head down, move methodically through each area, and use save points and line of sight to your advantage; you’ll have far fewer issues playing like this.



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Earth' Sound Designer Explains That Xenomorph Baby Talk
Product Reviews

Earth’ Sound Designer Explains That Xenomorph Baby Talk

by admin



While Alien: Earth fans nervously await FX’s confirmation that the Noah Hawley show will be returning for a second season—that cliffhanger finale made it seem pretty likely—there’s still plenty to ponder about season one. There are lots of big lingering questions around exactly how the superpowered hybrid Wendy (Sydney Chandler) was able to talk to Xenomorphs—and why these apex predators decided to obey her commands.

The people behind the show aren’t divulging any details just yet, but we do have a little more sense of how Alien: Earth approached those crucial communications.

We get a visceral demonstration of Wendy’s special connection with the Xenomorphs when we see her close encounter with something entirely new in the sci-fi franchise: a sort of toddler-age Xenomorph. We’ve seen eggs, facehuggers, chestbursters, and seven-foot monsters, but a cute li’l Xeno is unexplored territory. That’s right, we said cute—which is exactly how the show’s sound editor/designer, Lee Gilmore, also described it in a new interview with IGN.

“We wanted to make sure that when we see the baby Xeno, when he comes out for the first time and she’s talking to him, there’s almost a cute element to it,” explained Gilmore. “And it was great, because it kind of lulls the audience into… This is a cool little pet, you know. And then he totally rages out and slams himself against the window, and you realize, oh, this thing’s a killing machine.”

One of Gilmore’s biggest challenges for Alien: Earth was coming up with the language Wendy uses to talk to the aliens, no matter their size. It’s a clicking, whirring array of sounds, and the pint-sized guy got his own special adjustments. On the show, it’s totally convincing: these two are fully conversing.

“You had to find a balance between cute, chirpy things that signify that he’s still a baby, and then you slowly start integrating more aggressive sounds,” Gilmore said. “And when he’s full-grown, he has a much deeper body to him… We really were very specific in what kind of low elements we added to it. But once he’s like a full-grown adult Xeno, he’s got a lot more weight, a lot more body to him, his growls, and he’s seething.”

Read the full interview, which goes into a lot more detail about not just the Alien: Earth language but the creation of sci-fi languages in general, at IGN.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Broadcast TV Is a 'Melting Ice Cube.’ Kimmel Just Turned Up the Heat
Product Reviews

Broadcast TV Is a ‘Melting Ice Cube.’ Kimmel Just Turned Up the Heat

by admin


Jimmy Kimmel returned to ABC this week. Sort of. About a quarter of ABC’s usual audience couldn’t see the talk show host this week after two major owners of ABC affiliates, Sinclair and Nexstar, refused to carry the show. Those right-leaning companies apparently felt that Kimmel’s joke—which included some disputed facts—was so unpardonable that they couldn’t expose their viewers to the comedian. They were also the first organizations to pull the plug on Kimmel, after Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr seemed to threaten action. That means that even the stations that did carry the show—as well as Disney, which owns ABC—might be courting the ire of a government official who seems eager to use his powers to silence critics.

Carr does have power. The FCC can grant and revoke broadcast licenses if stations don’t serve the public interest. It’s an artifact of a time when virtually 100 percent of viewers got their shows over the air, via television antennas. Local TV stations were granted slices of the very limited broadcast spectrum to beam their programs and had to meet certain standards to keep that privilege. But that era has passed. Local television stations now reach their audience via cable or internet bundles. Also, networks increasingly stream their programming through apps. Yet Carr still has the ability to bully networks and affiliates by threatening to take their licenses.

This raises a question: What’s the point of maintaining the current system? It’s certainly a mess for Disney and its fellow network owners like Comcast, which owns NBC, and Paramount, which owns CBS. Instead of kowtowing to free-speech-hating regulators, and toadying affiliates who are fine with censoring ABC programming, maybe Disney should bid farewell to stations that decline to run its programming. Disney already streams shows on Hulu (which it controls) and on its own app. There have long been examples of local stations owned and operated by networks. What if Disney or Comcast let contracts with troublesome affiliates lapse and then started their own local stations without using spectrum—both as apps and cable channels? Let Nexstar and Sinclair find their own programming, where they can tailor content to any standard they want. Disney can happily bypass the airwaves without worrying about FCC threats. They can even say those seven dirty words!

I ran this idea past a former FCC commissioner, who pointed out some potential problems involving existing contracts and such. But generally, he agreed that the idea not only made sense but was already in motion, on the largest scale. “It’s what Disney is doing by streaming ESPN and everything else. It is something that has to be coming,” he tells me, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Blair Levin, the former chief of staff to an FCC chairman, was even more sympathetic to my idea. “Broadcast is a melting ice cube,” he says. It’s only a question of how long it will take to thaw. Five years? Ten?

So my idea is less novel than I thought. The Kimmel conundrum has only turned up the heat on a doomed chunk of frozen water. Even as I chatted with former FCC officials, Needham, an investment bank that tracks media, put out a note that suggested even more drastic action is warranted. Disney, it said, should immediately begin streaming its entire schedule! The money it would reap from ads or subscriptions would more than make up for any losses, and Disney’s market cap would rise.

I don’t expect that to happen right away. The multiyear contracts and ongoing relationships between affiliates and networks lock in the current situation for a while. But when I asked an executive from a company that owns TV stations whether the current arrangement was sustainable, I didn’t get the pushback I expected. “It’s a real question,” he tells me, admitting the relationship of late has become more fraught.



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
DAAPrivacyRightIcon
Product Reviews

Meta announces paid subscriptions for both Instagram and Facebook in the UK

by admin


Facebook and Instagram users in the UK will soon be offered paid subscriptions that remove ads. In the coming weeks, those over the age of 18 can pay £3 ($4) per month on the web, or £4 ($5) per month when using Meta’s iOS or Android apps. If you’re wondering why the mobile version is more expensive, Meta blames that on fees levied by Apple and Google in their respective app stores.

A no-ads subscription will apply to any Facebook and Instagram account added to a Meta Accounts Center, which is what Meta uses to let users connect various Meta logins on its different platforms. Any additional account listed in a user’s Accounts Center will automatically gain their own subscription for an extra £2 ($3) per month on the web or £3 ($4) per month for iOS and Android. Anyone who chooses to decline Meta’s offer will continue to see ads on its free platforms as normal, and can still use Ad Preferences to choose which ads they would prefer to see more or less of.

Meta says the change is a response to new regulatory “consent or pay” guidance from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), whereby users are given the choice between consenting to an organization using their data to personalize ads, or paying to avoid it. Meta previously introduced a similar change for its EU users, offering an ad-free subscription option for €10 ($11), but was fined €200 million by the European Commission for allegedly failing to comply with its stricter Digital Markets Act (DMA) laws. The company later offered a revised, cheaper, ad-free plan that was still being assessed by the EC earlier this year.

Meta praised the ICO for its “constructive approach” to personalised ads, which it insists provide the best experience for both its users and businesses, and criticised EU regulators for continuing to “overreach” with its privacy regulations. As reported by Bloomberg, digital advertising accounted for around 97 percent of Meta’s revenue in 2024.



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
An image of Name.com's landing page
Product Reviews

Name.com review | TechRadar

by admin



Why you can trust TechRadar


We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Name.com is best known as a domain registrar, but you might not even know that you’re using it. If you’ve used Wix, you’ll likely have got your domain through name.com without giving it a second thought.

Without giving it a second thought seems to be the ethos of name.com which is especially useful for developers who want to build quickly and seamlessly or the less technical ones that don’t want to mess around with DNS and might require support when things don’t quite go to plan.

Of course, this level of support and innovation doesn’t come at the cheapest price but buying a domain isn’t always about the lowest bottom line.

Of course, name.com is best known as a domain registrar, and for good reason. It offers one of the largest TLD selections of any registrar with over 600 TLDs, so you can rest assured that you’ll find the exact TLD you’re looking for. From popular TLDs like .com and .co.uk to niche and trendy ones like .ai, .lol, and .cool, name.com has everything.

A standard .com domain will cost you $12.99 for the first year (renews at $27.99), plus $4.99/year for name.com’s advanced security tier, which includes WHOIS privacy, SSL certificate, and protection against spam calls and unauthorized transfers or changes.

However, name.com offers some serious first-year discounts if you bundle Titan Email or Google Workspace. This is how it works:

  • If you buy Titan Email (Name.com’s paid email hosting, costs $24 per year), they’ll throw in the domain for free for the first year.
  • If you buy Google Workspace (Google’s email/productivity suite, sold via Name.com, costs $42 per year), you can get the domain for only $0.99 for the first year.
  • If you buy both, the best discount (i.e. the Titan Email one) will be applied, so your domain will still be $0 for the first year.
  • It’s worth noting that both Google Workspace and Titan Email are available at a flat 50% discount with name.com.

(Image credit: Future)

Hosting products: web, cloud, and WordPress

Name.com now offers a decent list of hosting products, ranging from simple web hosting to cloud and one-click install WordPress hosting.

The most basic web hosting plan lets you build a single website and set up 100 email accounts for $6 a month on a 1-year subscription. Note that name.com does not offer multi-year subscriptions for its hosting services. The business plan, which is built for scale, is priced at $13 a month on a 1-year subscription and supports unlimited websites, unlimited email accounts, and unlimited storage.

Every account also includes a free SSL certificate, automated backups every 48 hours, a 99.9% uptime guarantee, and the industry-standard cPanel for easy management. Even better, you’ll get a free domain name for the first year. For example, if you choose a .com domain that usually costs $12.99, it will be free for the first year and then renew at its usual rate from the second year onward.

That said, keep in mind that the privacy bundle for a domain name (around $4.99) is not included in the free package. You’ll have to pay for that separately.

Cloud hosting is also more than decent. Name.com has partnered with DigitalOcean and offers its basic shared Droplets. For a standard 60 GB Droplet, you’ll have to pay $216 a year, and if that wasn’t expensive enough, backups – which are usually free with other providers – will set you back another $72 a year. This is pretty expensive by industry standards.

That said, there are still some strong points on offer: you get global data centers, one-click deployments, and support for popular platforms like WordPress, Ubuntu, Debian, and CentOS. The provider also mentions easy upgrades. However, with cloud hosting, the gold standard is automatic scaling and geo-redundancy. Name.com doesn’t clearly state how many data centers it offers, while other dedicated cloud hosts are more transparent, letting you confirm redundancy before signing up.

Also, this is shared hosting and not managed cloud, so you won’t get managed extras. In fact, the website’s FAQs state directly that you’ll need a base-level understanding of Linux and the command line to take full advantage of this self-managed cloud hosting. So it’s definitely not for everyone.

As for WordPress hosting, name.com offers just a single plan at $29.95 a year. It comes with everything you’d need for a basic website: one-click installation, unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth, free daily backups, plugin support, and a free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate. However, if you’re looking for more advanced features like staging environments, automatic updates, or optimized caching, you might be better off elsewhere.

All in all, unless you’re looking into name.com’s hosting products to simply get everything (hosting, domain, site builder) in one place, you’ll be better off with a dedicated web host, as you’re likely to get more features there – and at a better price.

Performance & customer support

The last time we tested name.com, it actually cropped up above-par performance, delivering consistent uptime and impressive speeds.

Our latest tests, though, are still ongoing, and we’ll soon update this page to reflect the most recent findings – so stay tuned.

Name.com’s hosting is aimed more or less at beginners, and that means the company needs to provide the quality support its target audience requires. The company’s knowledgebase is decent enough, with menus and links pointing you to various topics, featured articles highlighting common issues, and there’s a search box to help you track down what you need.

We tried a few test searches. The engine regularly reported finding large numbers of articles, but these cover all name.com products, not just web hosting, so we had to scroll through various domain registration and email hosting articles to find what we needed.

The situation picked up once we located more relevant content. There’s usually not a lot of detail, but most articles cover the core points, with screenshots to point you in the right direction, and some video tutorials if you prefer.

There’s a support team to deal with more complex queries. They’re available via telephone and live chat, only for a limited number of hours (7am to 10pm phone and 12pm to 3am Monday to Friday for phone, 2am to 8pm chat), but there’s 24/7 ticket support if you need it.

Final verdict

Name.com is a fantastic storefront where you can find everything you need to get an online business underway. It offers excellent and affordable domain registration, along with bundled extras like Google Workspace with Gemini and Titan Email with AI-driven features. On top of that, you also get hosting options, including WordPress hosting.

That said, if your main priority is hosting, you’ll likely be better served by a dedicated web host. While name.com has expanded its hosting range, these services still feel more like strong add-ons that complement its core strength: domain registration.



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 9: A U.S. Department of Commerce sign is displayed at the Herbert C. Hoover Federal Building on June 9, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Carter/Getty Images)
Product Reviews

Trump administration is reportedly planning to tariff US tech firms that don’t source equal numbers of imported and American chips

by admin



Every tech firm in the US heavily relies on the likes of China and Taiwan for its products, whether it involves the wholesale manufacturing of them or the supply of the vast number of semiconductor chips and components required. However, if a purported idea being considered by the Trump administration comes to fruition, they will all need to massively reduce imports and switch to locally-made chips to avoid being hit with a fresh tariff.

That’s according to a report by the Wall Street Journal, which claims that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has already mooted the idea with various executives within America’s semiconductor industry. If we use Nvidia as an example, it currently relies almost exclusively on companies outside of the US for all the chips and other electronic components that are used to manufacture its graphics cards and AI data servers.

Its GPUs and CPUs are made by TSMC in Taiwan, with circuit boards and the host of parts that are fitted to them produced in China. Nvidia tends to use Micron for VRAM chips more than any other firm, and while that company is US-based, it also has production facilities in Singapore and China.


Related articles

To comply with a mandate that requires it to maintain a 1:1 ratio of locally-produced semiconductor chips versus those that it imports, Nvidia would need to drastically change its supply chain somehow. Either that, or it would have to rely on the majority of its suppliers having facilities within the US to produce said components.

At the moment, there’s no indication of the nature or size of the tariff that would be applied if companies failed to reach the ratio target, but even if the threat of it is big enough to make all US tech companies immediately comply, one question remains unanswered. And it’s because there is no answer for it.

TSMC’s chip foundry in Arizona. America’s going to need a lot more of these. (Image credit: TSMC)

How is America’s semiconductor industry supposed to match the combined output, breadth of products, and level of technological accomplishment of Taiwan, South Korea, China, Japan, and Singapore? Despite having the likes of Intel, GlobalFoundries, and Micron, as well as fabrication plants from Samsung and TSMC, the supply chain for the global tech market is predominantly based outside of the US.

If one assumes that it can be scaled up to the level required to meet the 1:1 demand, it certainly can’t happen overnight, and the cost for adjusting the supply chain to this extent is likely to be enormous. So much so that it’s possible that any tariff would pale in comparison.

WSJ’s report also claims that the plan would allow companies to make manufacturing pledges, to give themselves sufficient time to build the required infrastructure in America, without incurring the tariff. There may also be a relief period if and when the plan is introduced, to allow for US-based production to be ramped up.

While it can be argued that having a more equally distributed semiconductor supply chain is beneficial for stability and security reasons, the economic impact of forcing it to significantly adjust so rapidly could be too much for the industry to bear; at the very least, tech companies that are currently struggling with uncertain revenues or low profit margins would not welcome the plan.

For the US tech industry, this could ultimately be good news or catastrophic news, but until any official statement is made by the Trump administration, we’re just left with speculation. Any move to significantly reduce chip imports might seem like a great idea, but with the devil being in the details, and details being thin on the ground right now, tech firms are probably feeling a tad jittery about all of this.

Best PC build 2025

All our favorite gear



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Trump Gives Green Light to TikTok Deal
Product Reviews

Trump Gives Green Light to TikTok Deal

by admin



President Donald Trump signed an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House on Thursday that’s intended to give the green light for U.S. investors to take a large stake in TikTok. But details of the proposed deal still haven’t been revealed, and there are plenty of hoops to jump through before it’s finalized.

“This is going to be American-operated all the way,” Trump said Thursday. “And great respect [sic] for President Xi, and I very much appreciate that he approved the deal. Because to get it done properly, we really needed the support of China and the approval of China.”

Trump has claimed that China’s President, Xi Jinping, has approved the deal, but it still needs formal approval from China, according to the Washington Post. And the Wall Street Journal reports that the group of new investors who are supposed to take over TikTok has yet to be finalized, and legal details haven’t been ironed out.

Who are these new investors? According to Trump on Thursday, Larry Ellison, Michael Dell, and Rupert Murdoch are among the “four or five absolutely world-class investors” involved. Trump recently sued Murdoch for defamation over a Wall Street Journal article about a birthday book made for Jeffrey Epstein and signed by Trump in 2003.

CNBC reported earlier Thursday that a new entity operated by Oracle, Silver Lake, and the Abu Dhabi-based MGX investment fund will control about 45% of TikTok. Thirty-five percent will be controlled by ByteDance investors and new holders, according to the business channel. And ByteDance will reportedly control 19.9%, the limit dictated by the law passed last year to force the Chinese company to divest or face a total ban in the U.S.

Trump tried to ban TikTok during his first term in 2020 through an executive order, but that was stymied by the courts and ultimately dropped early in Joe Biden’s first term. But a bipartisan group of lawmakers revived the effort to ban TikTok on national security grounds in 2023, and that law was passed in 2024 and signed into law by Biden.

President Trump pulled a complete 180 in March 2024 during the lead-up to the presidential election, insisting that he no longer wanted TikTok to be banned. And Trump has now delayed enforcing the law five times since he came into office in January. His repeated delays are almost certainly unlawful according to most experts, but Congress hasn’t acted.

One area where Congress may act, according to the Washington Post, is by questioning whether the proposed deal actually follows the letter of the law. ByteDance investors will still hold a significant stake in the company, and ByteDance will apparently keep control of the TikTok algorithm in some way, though there are still questions about how all of that may shake out.

A reporter asked Trump in the Oval Office whether he wanted to see the new TikTok algorithm suggest more MAGA-related content.

“If I could, I’d make it 100% MAGA-related,” Trump said to laughter from his underlings. “It’s actually a good question, but I would… If I could make it 100% MAGA, I would. But it’s not going to work out that way, unfortunately.”

But Trump then suggested other non-MAGA-aligned groups would still be allowed to exist on TikTok. “No, everyone’s going to be treated fairly. Every group, every philosophy, every policy will be treated very fairly,” said Trump.

Trump may insist that everyone will get a fair shake on the new TikTok, but about 30 minutes later, in the same Oval Office presentation, Trump signed a presidential memo targeting left-wing and anti-fascist groups for prosecution.

“These are anarchists and agitators, professional anarchists and agitators, and they get hired by wealthy people, some of whom I know, I guess… probably know,” Trump said. “You wouldn’t know at dinner with them. Everything’s nice, and then you find out that they funded millions of dollars to these lunatics.”

FBI Director Kash Patel, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and senior advisor Stephen Miller were all on hand to make threats against left-wing groups, claiming that they’re “domestic terrorists.”

President Trump also claimed last week that TV stations that criticize him should get their broadcast licenses taken away.

CBS cancelled Stephen Colbert’s show under pressure, and ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel last week before reinstating him on Tuesday. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr made mob-like threats against ABC, and it remains to be seen how many more critics the Trump regime can successfully silence. Trump has previously tweeted that Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers are “next.”

The president doesn’t like even the mildest forms of criticism, and the U.S. government has no problem demanding that media platforms censor people who oppose Trump. So it will be interesting to see what happens to TikTok’s algorithm after any deal is completed. It’s hard to imagine a world where Trump allows anti-Trump content to thrive on social media.

But first, the TikTok deal has to be finalized. And despite Trump’s repeated insistence that everything is done, it seems like there are quite a few more hurdles before this one crosses the finish line.



Source link

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Close