Apple iPad Pro (2024) review: the best kind of overkill
Apple’s latest high-end tablet is a marvel of hardware design still in need of the software and accessories to really make it sing. But wow is it fun to use.
Apple’s latest high-end tablet is a marvel of hardware design still in need of the software and accessories to really make it sing. But wow is it fun to use.
Feed refreshed
First, who holds their phone like this? Second, the Gemini AI Google teased after OpenAI’s announcements sure seems fast and natural and accurate, as canned demos are prone to do.
We’ll learn more when Google I/O kicks off proper starting at 10AM PT / 1PM ET / 7PM CET.
Both Claude.ai and the Claude iOS app are available for free and claim “strong levels of comprehension and fluency in French, German, Spanish, Italian, and other European languages.” A Pro version of Amazon’s favorite chatbot unlocks all models and is available for €18 plus tax per month.
[AnthropicAI]
Silicon Valley’s favorite Harvard dropout (sorry, Gates) has arrived in Panama at the same time as the “Launchpad” vessel he apparently purchased for around $300 million, after the Russian-commissioned megayacht was seized. Longer than an NFL football field, it’s still slightly smaller than Jeff Bezos’ own midlife crisis.
The super-secretive yachting community makes all this difficult to confirm but the video below from March gives an expert account of Zuck’s fancy birthday boat.
It’s no secret that the PS5 has entered the “latter stage of its life cycle” with Sony resetting sales expectations in February. Today’s earnings report shows it just missing that revised 21M target by selling 20.8 million consoles for the fiscal year.
We’ll see if the rumored PS5 Pro helps change the trajectory before the year is done.
AI, EVs, and Joe Biden’s push for domestic manufacturing are putting more pressure on aging power grids. The nation also needs double the transmission capacity to meet Biden’s goal of 100 percent carbon pollution-free electricity.
To get more transmission lines up, FERC just overhauled rules for new projects — including a mandate that grid operators start anticipating energy needs at least 20 years in advance.
Instead of reviewing the iPad, Federico Viticci over at MacStories decided to take iPadOS to task. He runs down what’s missing, what’s broken, and what Apple needs to do to make the iPad the do-everything device it could be. Federico gets it!
The iconic Lofi Girl is now in Fortnite — or, at least, her room is. A new Fortnite map lets you run around the bedroom as if you were in Honey I Shrunk the Kids, collecting music notes and sneaking a look at what’s under the bed. It’s unsurprisingly pretty chill, except for some of the platforming sequences.
More residents across the US are asking that question about carbon dioxide, The Washington Post reports, as technologies that capture CO2 from smokestacks become more popular with companies that want to claim they’re fighting climate change. All that captured carbon dioxide has to go somewhere, and concerns are growing about the safety of new CO2 pipelines and underground storage wells.
[The Washington Post]
We found all sorts of gadgets and goodies to celebrate the class of 2024, from the practical to the poignant.
Aibo — Sony’s “Four-Legged Entertainment Robot” — hit the shelves in 1999, to the utter horror of parents (like my own) who had barely recovered from Furbies launching the year prior.
Happy 25th birthday you old dog! My inner child is heartbroken to have never owned you, but my now 30-year-old self will happily skip the current model’s near $3,000 price tag.
Google’s mobile platform will have to look a little different to compete in the AI era.
After laying off 500 members of the Tesla Supercharger team and sending the EV charging world into turmoil, Tesla is looking to rehire some of the personnel. As Bloomberg reports, one of the major returns is director for charging for North America Max De Zegher, who apparently worked right under ousted director Rebecca Tinucci.
What is the company announcing one day ahead of Google’s presumably AI-heavy I/O 2024 event tomorrow? According to Sam Altman, what OpenAI has in store is not the rumored search engine or GPT-5 updates, but we’ll find out what it really is at 1PM ET / 10AM PT.
Its limitations made it fall short in daily life but ended up being a plus while trying to disconnect from the world.
It’ll be its first update since the 2021 model, but don’t expect much — it’ll come with a processor bump, Mark Gurman wrote to subscribers of his Power On newsletter for Bloomberg yesterday. But as he also wrote in April, it won’t get much else.
Ubisoft has announced that the project formerly titled Assassin’s Creed Red now has an official name: Assassin’s Creed Shadows. But wait, there’s more. In addition to announcing the name change, Ubisoft has also announced that it’ll be sharing the game’s first official reveal trailer this week, Wednesday May 15th at 12 PM ET.