YouTube is looking to take a more aggressive approach in preventing viewers from using ad blockers while watching videos on its platform. As BleepingComputer reports, people have been posting screenshots on social networks like Reddit that show a pop-up notice warning them that their player will be blocked after three videos. 

The warning says YouTube will block their ability to play videos on the platform unless they disable their ad blocker or add the website to their white list. "Ads allow YouTube to stay free for billions of users worldwide," the notice continues. To go ad-free, the company tells users to get a YouTube Premium subscription so "creators can still get paid." Prior to these warnings, YouTube only showed popups to ad blocker users, reminding them that it's against the website's TOS. Eventually, it added a timer to the notices to ensure viewers take the time to read them.

The website has confirmed to BleepingComputer that the new alerts are part of an experiment. A spokesperson told the publication that YouTube is "running a small experiment globally that urges viewers with ad blockers enabled to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium." They said that YouTube might temporarily disable playback "[i]n extreme cases, where viewers continue their use of ad blockers." The spokesperson added that they will only disable playback "if viewers ignore repeated requests to allow ads on YouTube," though it's unclear if that means YouTube won't automatically block playback after a viewer watches three videos and will give them more opportunities to comply. 

At the moment, this new approach only affects a small number of users, and YouTube didn't say how many people and regions are part of the test. The website, which makes most of its money from ads, has seen its ad revenue decline over the past three quarters, so we won't be surprised if this test expands to more users around the world should it turn out to be effective. 

After years of testing and delays, Virgin Galactic's first commercial spaceflight is finally taking off — today, if the company's plan goes as intended. Galactic 01 is scheduled to launch from the company's Spaceport America facility in New Mexico past 11AM Eastern time, and you can stream the event live on Virgin Galactic's website or through the video below.

The mission will carry a three-person crew from the Italian Air Force and the National Research Council of Italy to suborbital space aboard the VSS Unity. That's Virgin Galactic's second SpaceShipTwo space plane, which first reached space back in 2018. The flight will last for 90 minutes, during which the crew will conduct 13 scientific experiments. A particular experiment requires one of the passengers, Col. Walter Villadei, to wear a state-of-the-art smart suit to measure his physiological responses and biometric data in space. 

Virgin Galactic posted a net loss of $159.4 million for the quarter ending in March 31st this year, almost twice the loss it posted for the same period a year ago. Galactic 01's success will lead to more and frequent launches in the future, and that could eventually lead to profitability. If this mission goes off without a hitch, the company plans to launch Galactic 02 with a private crew in early August. After that, the company plans to launch suborbital flights on a monthly basis, charging passengers $450,000 a seat. 

Unless you switch to chronological timeline on Facebook, the things you see on your timeline could seem pretty arbitrary at times. Now, Meta has given us pretty comprehensive look at how its AI systems decide on the posts that appear on our Facebook and Instagram feeds. The social networking giant has released 22 card systems for the platforms that explain how its AI systems rank content for its Feed, Stories and Reels. Each card explains how a certain aspect of Meta's platform works — for instance, the company explains that for Facebook Feeds, its AI system starts by gathering all potential posts by friends and Pages you follow. 

After that, the system considers various input signals, such as who created the post, how you interacted with them and how many of your friends have liked the post, if any. All those aspects will help the AI rank posts based on which you'll find the most relevant and valuable and then show them on your feed in order of the scores they get. The card systems also show how you can customize what you see on the platforms and link to instructions on, say, how to unfollow a person or a group and how to click "show more" or "show less" on a post to indicate if you like or dislike a particular subject. 

In a post announcing the cards' release, Nick Clegg, Meta's President of Global Affairs, listed the tools you can use to personalize your experience on the company's platforms. In addition to the two aforementioned tools, Facebook and Instagram have centralized menus with customization controls, called Feed Preferences and Suggested Content Control Center, respectively. Clegg also said that Meta is testing a new feature on Instagram allows you to indicate whether you're "Interested" in a recommended reel in the Reels tab, so the app can show you more similar content. At the moment, you can only indicate whether you're "Not Interested" in a specific reel. In addition, he said Meta is working on making the "show more" and "show less" feature more prominent. 

Meta has lifted the lid on how its algorithms work before the European Union starts enacting the Digital Markets Act in 2024. The new law will require online services like Facebook and Instagram to be more transparent on the technologies behind their recommendation algorithms. It will also require platforms to offer chronological feeds and will ban ads targeting you based on your religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity or political affiliation. Earlier this year, Meta also rolled out a new version of its "Why am I seeing this ad?" tool to provide more transparency on how your activities power its ad-matching software.

You can grab Amazon's third-generation Echo Buds for $35 right now if you're a Prime member. That's a substantial price drop for a $50 product that launched in May and only started shipping on June 7th. The wireless earbuds are already cheaper than their predecessors, but this makes them an even more attractive option if you're looking for an affordable pair. Amazon gave the new Echo Buds a completely different design from earlier versions and adopted an AirPods-like stickbud aesthetic. The company describes the new earbuds as "semi in-ear," most likely because their silicone buds don't form a tight seal to keep ambient sounds out. 

Amazon says the earbuds can reduce outside noise, but they let in enough sounds to keep you connected to your surroundings. They can play up to five hours of music non-stop and can last for up to 20 hours with the charging case before you need to plug them in. If you run out battery and need to use them ASAP, they can last up to two hours with a 15-minute quick charge. 

The earbuds can seamlessly switch their connection, so you can quickly move between two different devices. They have customizable tap controls, but they also have Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant support, allowing you to issue voice commands to cue music, listen to audiobooks, make calls and set reminders, among other things. In addition, they feature dual connect, which means you can use just one earbud if you want. 

If you'd prefer earbuds with Active Noise Cancellation, Amazon's second-generation Echo Buds are also on sale if you're a Prime member. They're currently selling for $65, down 46 percent from their regular price of $120. Both are merely early Prime Day deals for members paying for the monthly subscription service — the actual event kicks off at July 11th and ends on July 12th. 

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Google has killed a project internally known as "Iris" that it established to build augmented reality glasses, according to Business Insider. The tech giant worked on the glasses' development for several years, but it reportedly shelved Iris following waves of layoffs and company reshuffles over the past few months. Another event that factored into Google's decision was the departure of Clay Bavor, the company's former chief of augmented and virtual reality, to form a startup with Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor. In addition, Google reportedly kept changing its strategy for the Iris glasses, which became a source of frustration for team members working on the project. 

When The Verge reported about the Iris augmented reality glasses in early 2022, it said that Google could launch the device in 2024. The Iris AR glasses were supposed to look like a pair of ordinary glasses. and an early version reportedly resembled a product called "Focals" by North, a Canadian startup that Google had acquired in 2020. Google also demoed a newer version in a video showing a real-time AR translation feature. 

While the company has stopped working on its own AR hardware, Business Insider says it still very much has big augmented reality ambitions. Instead of building its own hardware, Google has apparently chosen to focus on creating an "Android for AR" instead. The company is reportedly hoping to adopt the same business model it's using for its mobile platform and license its AR software to manufacturers. At the moment, Google is busy developing Android XR for Samsung's "extended reality" wearable devices and, according to Insider, on a new platform called "micro XR" for glasses. 

In a series of messages on his Telegram channel, Pavel Durov has revealed that the instant messaging service is launching its own take on Stories next month. He shared that users have been asking for the feature for years but the company has initially been against it "since Stories are already everywhere." Telegram ultimately decided to listen to its users, though, and has created a version of its own that seems to be more customizable than other platforms'. 

The messaging service's Stories feature looks just like Messenger's in that they show up as expandable bubbles at the top of the conversation list. Users will be able to define who sees their posts and can choose to make them viewable to the public, only to their contacts (with exceptions), just a few selected contacts or to list of Close Friends. They can add captions and links to their Stories, and they can tag other people. Users can also share photos and videos captured by the front-facing and the rear cameras simultaneously, similar to posts found on BeReal. 

If users don't want to see posts from a certain contact, they can move them to the "Hidden" list in their contacts section. But what's perhaps the best thing about Telegram's take so far is that users will be able to choose when their Stories expire. They can set them to disappear in 24 hours like in other services, but they can also choose to make them disappear within 6, 12 or 48 hours. Users can even permanently display their Stories on their profile page. If they do, they won't be forced to make them viewable to anybody and can still choose the privacy setting for each post. 

Durov said Telegram has been testing the feature internally and that it's in the last stages of the testing phase. The company plans to make Stories available on its app sometime in early July. 

Meta has added new tools to its Family Center that will allow parents to see and control how their teenage kids are using Messenger. They'll now be able to view how much time their kid spends on the app, along with their privacy and safety settings. Parents and guardians will be able to see who can message their child and who can see their stories. In addition, they can get notifications for changes to their teen's contact list and for any changes their kid makes to their privacy and safety settings. If their child reports a user to Meta, parents can also get notified if their teen chooses to share the information with them. 

The social networking giant said these are but the first batch of parental supervision tools coming to Family Center, and that it plans to add more over the next year. While they're only rolling out for users in the US, UK and Canada at the moment, Meta intends to expand their availability to other regions around the world in the coming months. Take note that Facebook has had parental controls for Messenger Kids for years, and these tools are for the main Messenger app, meant for parents with teens 13 to 18 years old. 

Facebook/Meta

Aside from these new parental tools, Meta will now show teens a notification when they've already spent 20 minutes on Facebook to urge them to set daily time limits. For Instagram, it's exploring a new nudge feature that will ask teens to close the app if they've been scrolling Reels at night. Meta has also expanded its parental controls for Instagram to show parents how many friends their teen has in common with accounts they follow and are followed by. Plus, teens will get a new notification after they've blocked someone, encouraging them to add their parents to supervise their account. 

Instagram/Meta

The company has a few safety updates that aren't teen-focused, as well. It's rolling out Quiet Mode, which mutes all notifications and changes a user's profile status, on Instagram around the world over the coming weeks. It's also currently testing a couple of new features meant to protect Instagram users from unwanted DMs. Users must now send an invite to connect to someone who doesn't follow them before being able to send a message. Further, they can only send one invite at a time and can't send more until the recipient accepts it. These message request invites are text only, prohibiting users from being able to send photos, videos or voice messages to other users they're not connected to. 

Instagram

Google is looking at online games as a new possible source of income for YouTube, according to a new report by the Wall Street Journal. The video hosting platform has reportedly invited employees to test a new product called Playables, which gives users access to online games right on YouTube itself. Based on the internal email the Journal saw, it wouldn't even matter what device they're using: Apparently, the games are accessible both on mobile and on desktop. 

Users will be able to play them on the YouTube website using a web browser or on the app, whether on an Android or an iOS phone. While the report insinuates that there are currently several games available for testing, it only mentioned Stack Bounce in particular. It's an ad-supported arcade game that gets players to smash layers of bricks with a bouncing ball. As the publication notes, YouTube already earns money from gaming livestreams, but this product will give it another way to generate revenue from the industry in the midst of a decline in advertising spending.

While Google failed to grow its defunct Stadia games streaming service and ultimately shut it down, this endeavor is a different thing altogether. YouTube already has a massive audience regularly visiting the site, so getting eyes on the new product wouldn't be a problem. Playables is perhaps more akin to Netflix's gaming product that gives its paying users access to casual games on mobile. Netflix has big ambitions for its gaming initiative, as well, and is reportedly working on an expansion that goes beyond mobile devices by testing TV games that use phones as controllers. 

You may be able to pay for purchases and get into train stations without having to physically touch your phone to an NFC terminal in the future. The NFC Forum, which defines the standards for NFC, has revealed a roadmap for key research and plans for near field communication through 2028. Apparently, one of the main priorities for the future of the technology is to increase its range. At the moment, NFC only works if two enabled devices are within 5 millimeters from each other, but the group says it's currently examining ranges that are "four to six times the current operating distance."

That's 30 millimeters or 1.18 inches at most, but it could enable faster transactions and fewer failed ones overall, seeing as a longer range also means there's a lower precision requirement for antenna alignment. In addition, the forum is looking to improve the current NFC wireless charging specification of 1 watt to 3 watts. The capability will bring wireless charging to "new and smaller form factors," the forum said, but didn't give examples of what those form factors could look like. 

Another potential future NFC capability will support several actions with a single tap. Based on the sample use cases the forum listed — point-to-point receipt delivery, loyalty identification and total-journey ticketing — we could be looking at the possibility of being able to validate transit tickets or venue tickets for the whole family with just one tap or a single device. NFC-enabled smartphones could have the power to serve as point-of-sale devices in the future, as well. Apple's Tap to Pay feature already lets iPhone owners use their phones as payment terminals. But a standardized capability would allow more people, especially in developing countries where Android is more prevalent, to use their devices to offer payments for their small businesses and shops. 

These plans are in varying stages of development right now, with some further along than others. The forum doesn't have a clear timeline for their debut yet, but it said that the timeframe for its plans spans two to five years.

The US government is asking qualified members of the public for help in figuring out how to seize opportunities and overcome challenges associated with generative AI. Gina Raimondo, the US Secretary of Commerce, has announced that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is launching a public working group for AI technologies that can generate content, including text, images, videos, music and code. The group will also help the agency develop key guidance that organizations can follow to address risks brought by generative AI tech. 

According to the agency, the group will be composed of volunteers with technical expertise from the private and public sectors and will work together via a collaborative online workspace. To start with, the group will gather input on how the NIST AI Risk Management Framework — the framework the agency developed to "better manage risks to individuals, organizations and society associated with artificial intelligence" — may be used to support the development of generative AI tech. Then, the group is expected to support the agency's AI-related tests and evaluations. Its long-term goal, however, is to explore opportunities on how generative AI can be used to solve the most pressing issues of our time, such as problems related to health, climate change and the environment as a whole. 

Raimondo said in a statement:

"President Biden has been clear that we must work to harness the enormous potential while managing the risks posed by AI to our economy, national security and society. The recently released NIST AI Risk Management Framework can help minimize the potential for harm from generative AI technologies. Building on the framework, this new public working group will help provide essential guidance for those organizations that are developing, deploying and using generative AI, and who have a responsibility to ensure its trustworthiness."

The government has been scrambling to keep up with the rapidly advancing pace of generative AI technology. In April, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration asked for public comments on possible regulations that would hold AI creators accountable. The White House also invited American workers to share how automated tools are being used in their workplaces. Then in June, Representatives Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Ken Buck (R-CO) introduced legislation that would establish a 20-person commission to study ways to "mitigate the risks and possible harms" of AI while also "protecting" America's position as a global technology power. The legislation came after Microsoft vice chair and president Brad Smith spoke at Washington, DC and called on the US federal government to establish a new agency that's focused on regulating AI.