NY officials detect polio again, warn of possible summer wave

Enlarge / Transmission electron micrograph of poliovirus type 1. (credit: Getty | BSIP) Health officials in New York have once again detected poliovirus in wastewater from Rockland County, where a case of paralytic polio occurred last summer. Wastewater samples from Rockland and several nearby counties were positive for poliovirus...

12h

The power of AI compels you to believe this fake image of Pope in a puffy coat

Enlarge / An AI-generated photo of Pope Francis wearing a puffy white coat that went viral on social media. (credit: @skyferrori on Twitter) Over the weekend, an AI-generated image of Pope Francis wearing a puffy white coat went viral on Twitter, and apparently many people believed it was a real image. Since then, the puffy pontiff...

13h

Biden’s executive order limits government’s use of commercial spyware

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) President Joe Biden on Monday signed an executive order barring many uses by the federal government of commercial spyware, which has been increasingly used by other countries in recent years to surveil dissidents, journalists, and politicians. The signing of the executive order came as administration...

13h

Dealmaster: 1-day-only Nintendo Switch, Microsoft 365 deals; plus PS5 and AirTags

Enlarge / The new OLED Switch above its predecessor. (credit: Sam Machkovech) Kicking off the week, we have a couple of today-only sales, including a rare discount on Nintendo's Switch OLED and a free $50 Amazon gift card deal on Microsoft's 365 Family office software. There are also price cuts on the PS5 God of War Ragnarök bundle...

14h

Apple rolls out iOS 16.4 and macOS Ventura 13.3 with new emoji and features

Enlarge / The 2021, 24-inch iMac with Apple's M1. (credit: Samuel Axon) Apple released new updates for most of its software platforms today, including macOS Ventura 13.3, iOS 16.4, iPadOS 16.4, tvOS 16.4, and watchOS 9.4. These are all feature updates, meaning they actually add new functionality in addition to fixing bugs or addressing...

15h

Today’s the last day to buy eShop games for the Wii U and 3DS

Enlarge / Your last chance to buy individual games for the Wii U and 3DS—assuming you have credits in your wallet account—arrives tonight. Only a few hours remain for anyone who wants to buy games from the eShops for Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS. As it promised more than a year ago, Nintendo is shutting down those digital storefronts...

15h

Hobbyist builds ChatGPT client for MS-DOS

Enlarge / A photo of an IBM PC 5155 portable computer running a ChatGPT client written by Yeo Kheng Meng. (credit: Yeo Kheng Meng) On Sunday, Singapore-based retrocomputing enthusiast Yeo Kheng Meng released a ChatGPT client for MS-DOS that can run on a 4.77 MHz IBM PC from 1981, providing a unique way to converse with the popular OpenAI...

15h

Musk says Twitter value is down to $20 billion, calls firm an “inverse startup”

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | NurPhoto ) Elon Musk told Twitter employees that the company is now worth about $20 billion, less than half the amount he paid for it. The New York Times reported that Musk provided the $20 billion figure in an email sent to staff on Friday to announce a new stock compensation program. "According to...

15h

Webb Telescope confirms nearby rocky planet has no significant atmosphere

Enlarge / An illustration of what the inner portion of the TRAPPIST-1 system might look like. (credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, J. Olmsted (STScI), T. P. Greene (NASA Ames), T. Bell (BAERI), E. Ducrot (CEA), P. Lagage (CEA)) At this point, we've discovered lots of exoplanets that fall under the general label "Earth-like." They're rocky, and...

15h

Google is killing most of Fitbit’s social features today

Enlarge / Fitbit's now-dead Challenges feature. (credit: Sherwin Fong) Today's the day for Google's biggest change yet to Fitbit: It's shutting down some more features. As Google announced in February, the popular fitness gamification features, Fitbit "Challenges" and "Adventures," are being shut down today. Google is also removing...

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