The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) captured extraordinarily detailed images published today of the Ring Nebula. The gaseous cloud, also called M57 and NGC 6720, contains 20,000 dense globules rich in molecular hydrogen. It sits about 2,500 light years away from Earth.

The first image (above) was taken with the NIRCam (Near InfraRed Camera), one of the Webb Space Telescope’s primary sensors. It is designed to detect light in the near-infrared spectrum and can capture remarkably detailed images. NIRCam also took the equally hypnotizing updated image of the Pillars of Creation.

Meanwhile, the second image (below) was captured using the JWST’s MIRI (Mid-InfraRed Instrument). It better highlights the nebula’s (roughly) ten concentric arcs beyond its outer edge, likely formed from its central star’s interaction with a lower-mass companion in its orbit. “In this way, nebulae like the Ring Nebula reveal a kind of astronomical archaeology, as astronomers study the nebula to learn about the star that created it,” the European Space Agency wrote in a press release.

ESA / Webb / NASA / CSA / M. Barlow / N. Cox / R. Wesson

The Ring Nebula was discovered somewhat serendipitously in 1779 by French astronomers Charles Messier and Antoine Darquier de Pellepoix while they searched for comets. It’s a planetary nebula, named as such because early researchers mistook their appearances for distant worlds. The Ring Nebula formed from a medium-sized star that shed its outer layers as it exhausted its fuel and approached its demise.

“The colourful main ring is composed of gas thrown off by a dying star at the centre of the nebula,” the ESA wrote. “This star is on its way to becoming a white dwarf — a very small, dense, and hot body that is the final evolutionary stage for a star like the Sun.”

A cargo ship equipped with rigid sails, each the height of a 10-story building, has departed on its inaugural journey. The Pyxis Ocean vessel will test WindWings sails, designed to harness old-school air power to help reduce fuel usage — and the shipping industry’s CO2 emissions. The sail’s creators estimate the technology could decarbonize cargo ships by about 30 percent as the maritime sector tries to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. The estimated reduction could be higher if paired with alternative fuels.

The ship has been retrofitted with two WindWings, each measuring 37.5 m (123 ft) tall. The rigid sails are made from the same materials as wind turbines and can be added to cargo ships’ decks, providing an option for older vessels to reduce environmental impact. The ship’s maiden voyage will chart a route from China to Brazil.

The project is a collaboration between BAR Technologies (which developed the sails), Cargill Ocean Transportation, Mitsubishi Corporation and Yara Marine. “The Maritime Industry is an extremely hard industry to decarbonize,” said Cargill president Jan Dieleman. “So there’s not many tools that you have. So it’s really important that we as users of the maritime industry are also going to get involved in some of the innovation and really move the industry forward.”

BAR Technologies

The shipping industry agreed in July to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to net zero “by or around, i.e., close to, 2050.” The nonbinding agreement is essentially toothless but meant as a signal to governments of where to benchmark their (binding) targets, according toThe New York Times. The agreement would have been even more lax if not for a “strong last-minute push” from small island nations and other less economically developed coastal countries, which led to a plan that provides a chance at limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. That’s the threshold climate experts agree the world needs to avoid to spare Earth from the worst climate-change scenarios.

“We fought tooth and nail for these numbers,” Carlos Fuller, Belize’s representative at the United Nations, told the NYT last month. “They aren’t perfect, but they give us a shot at staying within 1.5 degrees Celsius. And that’s what we came here to do.”

Wind power has the potential to help reach those goals, but adoption is a challenge. “We have the number of ships using this technology doubling over the past 12 months,” Stephen Gordon, managing director at maritime data firm Clarksons Research, told the BBC. “This is from a low base, however. In the international shipping fleet and new-build order book of over 110,000 vessels, we have records for under 100 having wind-assisted technology today.”

Twitch announced this week that an upcoming change will allow streamers to block banned users from tuning into their streams. “You can choose to have your banned chatters no longer be able to watch the stream,” Senior Product Manager Trevor Fisher revealed on Twitch’s Patch Notes podcast (viaTechCrunch), stressing that the feature won’t be enabled by default. The new blocking feature will roll out in the next few weeks.

“The way that it will work is if you ban somebody and they’re currently watching, then the stream playback will be interrupted for them so that they immediately lose the ability to view the stream,” he explained. “And then if you go offline, you stream again, they won’t be able to watch your subsequent streams either until you choose to un-ban them.” He said it would have the same effect regardless of whether the streamer or a moderator bans someone: That person can’t watch your streams until they’re unblocked.

One significant limitation to the new feature is that it only applies to logged-in users: Anyone viewing a stream while logged out of their account can still watch it. Twitch isn’t blocking IP addresses (at least for now), which leaves room for the noteworthy exception.

Fisher stressed that this is an incremental change that only partially addresses some of the platform’s moderation problems, including multiple women accusing Twitch streamers of sexual abuse and misconduct. Other moves to address the issue have included adding a one-button anti-harassment tool, enhancing its reporting and appeals process, rewriting its community policies and taking a stronger stance against deepfakes. “We know that this is an area where people want us to do more, and it’s just been shipping off one part of the problem at a time,” Fisher said.

Microsoft reportedly published — and retracted — an AI-generated article that recommended people visit a Canadian food bank as a tourist attraction. The article “Headed to Ottawa? Here’s what you shouldn’t miss!” included recommendations for catching a baseball game, honoring fallen soldiers at a war museum and… swinging by the Ottawa Food Bank. Paris Marx first called out the story on X (formerly Twitter). “People who come to us have jobs and families to support, as well as expenses to pay,” the AI-written section about the food bank section read. “Life is already difficult enough. Consider going into it on an empty stomach.”

Before its retraction, the article appeared on Microsoft Start, the company’s AI-aggregated news service that replaced Microsoft News in 2021. After The Vergereported on the article and its highly inappropriate recommendation about “going into it on an empty stomach,” Microsoft senior director Jeff Jones told the publication, “This article has been removed and we are investigating how it made it through our review process.”

The original URL now displays the message, “This page no longer exists. A new search page will load automatically.” The Verge uploaded screenshots of the initial story to Imgur.

The article’s author was listed merely as “Microsoft Travel,” suggesting real people may not have been had any involvement in its creation. Microsoft Start’s “About Us” webpage claims it uses “human oversight” for the algorithms that “comb through hundreds of thousands of pieces of content sent by our partners” to help the company “understand dimensions like freshness, category, topic type, opinion content and potential popularity and publish according to user preferences.” The Windows maker reportedly laid off around 50 reporters from the division in 2020 while shifting to AI-generated news.

Microsoft is hardly the first company to get overzealous in its use of AI-created content. Early this year, CNET published numerous error-ridden financial explainer articles composed by artificial intelligence. More recently, Gizmodo’s parent company G/O Media posted an AI-composed (also mistake-filled) Star Wars article on the site, which deputy editor James Whitbrook called “embarrassing, unpublishable, disrespectful.” As the Associated Pressproceeds with measured caution on AI-assisted news coverage, other media outlets — including Microsoft’s news publishing wing — appear considerably more comfortable cashing in on fully AI-written articles, clearing the inevitable wreckage after the fact.

The background-checking tool used by Match Group to offer a safety feature for Tinder users is shutting down. The non-profit and female-founded Garbo, which the dating app conglomerate has partnered with since 2019, will shut down its consumer tool at the end of August. “Most tech companies just see trust and safety as good PR,” Kathryn Kosmides, Garbo’s founder and CEO, told The Wall Street Journal, which published a report on the severed partnership. “I’d rather Garbo shift focus to our other efforts than allow the vision of Garbo to be compromised and relegated to a piece of big corporations’ marketing goals.”

A Match Group spokesperson supplied a statement to Engadget. “Match Group has made significant investments to enhance safety across our platforms over the last few years and we will continue to do so. From features like ‘Are you Sure?’ and ‘Does this bother you?’ to background checks, we have created tools and made investments that no other dating apps offer. We are committed to continuously investing and building industry-leading features that give users more information and control over who they choose to connect with on our platforms.”

The company suggests it’s in the process of finding a replacement partner to check for histories of violence. “While we are disappointed that we were unable to come to an agreement, we are in advanced conversations with alternate providers and will announce a new partnership soon,” the spokesperson wrote.

SOPA Images via Getty Images

Kosmides told the WSJ that Garbo’s decision to suspend the tool spawned from disagreements with Match Group and difficulties getting platforms to pay for its services. She described internal disputes within Match Group brands about how to make the tool work.

Tinder leaders reportedly pushed for a system that would encourage users to run background checks on themselves to receive a badge on their profile, described as “a way to engage those who are less likely to run [background checks] themselves (predominantly men) and highlight the majority of people that are good,” an internal document viewed by the WSJ read. Garbo rejected the idea, and Kosmides told the paper, “You can’t white-list someone or give them a ‘good guy, bad guy’ identity verification.”

Public and regulatory interest in dating app safety rose in 2019 when ProPublica published a widely circulated story about sex offenders using dating apps. A Match Group spokesperson was quoted in the story as telling Columbia Journalism Investigations, “There are definitely registered sex offenders on our free products.” The uproar led to increased scrutiny from Capitol Hill. U.S. Reps. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Ann Kuster (D-NH) sent a letter in 2020 to Match Group inquiring about protecting users from registered sex offenders. The pair sent a follow-up letter this July, noting that the dating company no longer discloses the size of its trust and safety team.

The intensified public and political interest heightened pressure on Match Group to do something, and its leadership reportedly saw Garbo — a new and untested product still under development at the time — as a novel solution. The dating conglomerate announced its $1.5 million partnership with the group in 2021 and launched a consumer tool the following year — with the company paying to offer two free background searches for Tinder users. Some criticized the move for providing a false sense of security, although Match Group cautioned not to view it as an all-in-one fix.

This summer, with Match Group and Garbo failing to agree on funding terms, the latter’s board met and voted to terminate the tool. Garbo, which also partnered with smaller firms, says it will shift back to being volunteer-run beginning on September 1st. The organization says it will “refocus our efforts on further ways to directly empower individuals with new and innovative tools to protect themselves from gender-based violence and other interpersonal harms in the digital age.”

Undeterred from its core mission, it adds, “We also plan to continue fiercely advocating for reforms in the criminal justice and public record systems to protect victims and hold bad actors accountable.”

Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak will be free on the Epic Games Store later this month. The well-received 2016 prequel to 1999 real-time strategy classic Homeworld arrives ahead of Homeworld 3, due early next year after multiple delays. The (usually $50) Deserts of Kharak will be available to claim on Epic’s storefront from August 24th to 31st.

The 2016 game takes place over a century before the events of Homeworld on the desert world of Kharak. The arid planet is the once-home of the Kushan people, protagonists of the 1999 original and central figures in the series. It’s the only Homeworld installment to move the action from space to the ground as you navigate the terrain to gain the advantage over the Kiith Gaalsien. This cult-like faction believes anyone who dreams of flying to the stars deserves harsh punishment — something they’re all too happy to dole out. Its gameplay honors the series’ strategic roots while adapting to ground play’s reduced axes of movement by making elevation (navigating the desert’s plateaus and valleys) a core focus.

Snagging the game for free can give the franchise’s fans something to tide them over ahead of Homeworld 3 in February 2024 — and publisher Gearbox Software would surely love to lure some younger gamers into the nearly quarter-century-old series. 

Gearbox Software

The Homeworld series has ridden an IP roller coaster since the RTS genre’s late 90s / early 00s heyday. After the first game’s critically acclaimed reception, original developer Relic Entertainment made two more (also well-received) games: an expansion and a proper sequel. However, after 2003’s Homeworld 2, THQ bought Relic and failed to produce a single Homeworld game under its ownership.

The series only got another lease on life after THQ folded and Gearbox Software won a 2013 auction to secure its rights. The Borderlands maker revived the saga with remastered versions of the classic titles. Deserts of Kharak followed soon after, and Homeworld 3 was finally announced in 2019, using a crowdfunding campaign to raise money and gauge consumer interest. After several delays, the long-awaited third installment will (hopefully) arrive next winter.

Claiming the PC game from August 24th to 31st will require an Epic Games account. During that time, you can navigate to the Deserts of Kharak store page in a browser or use the Epic Games Launcher to redeem it.

The Associated Press published standards today for generative AI use in its newsroom. The organization, which has a licensing agreement with ChatGPT maker OpenAI, listed a fairly restrictive and common-sense list of measures around the burgeoning tech while cautioning its staff not to use AI to make publishable content. Although nothing in the new guidelines is particularly controversial, less scrupulous outlets could view the AP’s blessing as a license to use generative AI more excessively or underhandedly.

The organization’s AI manifesto underscores a belief that artificial intelligence content should be treated as the flawed tool that it is — not a replacement for trained writers, editors and reporters exercising their best judgment. “We do not see AI as a replacement of journalists in any way,” the AP’s Vice President for Standards and Inclusion, Amanda Barrett, wrote in an article about its approach to AI today. “It is the responsibility of AP journalists to be accountable for the accuracy and fairness of the information we share.”

The article directs its journalists to view AI-generated content as “unvetted source material,” to which editorial staff “must apply their editorial judgment and AP’s sourcing standards when considering any information for publication.” It says employees may “experiment with ChatGPT with caution” but not create publishable content with it. That includes images, too. “In accordance with our standards, we do not alter any elements of our photos, video or audio,” it states. “Therefore, we do not allow the use of generative AI to add or subtract any elements.” However, it carved an exception for stories where AI illustrations or art are a story’s subject — and even then, it has to be clearly labeled as such.

Barrett warns about AI’s potential for spreading misinformation. To prevent the accidental publishing of anything AI-created that appears authentic, she says AP journalists “should exercise the same caution and skepticism they would normally, including trying to identify the source of the original content, doing a reverse image search to help verify an image’s origin, and checking for reports with similar content from trusted media.” To protect privacy, the guidelines also prohibit writers from entering “confidential or sensitive information into AI tools.”

Although that’s a relatively common-sense and uncontroversial set of rules, other media outlets have been less discerning. CNET was caught early this year publishing error-ridden AI-generated financial explainer articles (only labeled as computer-made if you clicked on the article’s byline). Gizmodo found itself in a similar spotlight this summer when it ran a Star Wars article full of inaccuracies. It’s not hard to imagine other outlets — desperate for an edge in the highly competitive media landscape — viewing the AP’s (tightly restricted) AI use as a green light to make robot journalism a central figure in their newsrooms, publishing poorly edited / inaccurate content or failing to label AI-generated work as such.

Opera announced today that its Aria AI assistant has made its way to iOS. The feature launched on desktop in June and stems from a partnership with ChatGPT creator OpenAI. Opera says Aria, now available on all major desktop and mobile platforms, has tallied over a million users on desktop and Android.

Like Microsoft’s Bing Copilot and Google’s Search Generative Experience, Aria can answer questions and respond to context around active web pages. The assistant taps into OpenAI’s GPT API while using Opera’s Composer architecture for real-time web results. “As an expert in both web navigation and browser functions, Aria facilitates AI collaboration in tasks such as information retrieval, text or code generation, and product inquiries,” Opera’s Kseniia Sycheva wrote in the company’s announcement post today.

Using the AI bot will require an Opera account, but nobody will be enrolled by default. “You have the autonomy to opt in based on your preference for engaging with AI services,” the company wrote. “Once activated, Aria offers intelligent insights, innovative ideas, and responsive voice commands.” As TechCrunchnotes, Aria is available from the “more” menu (the far right tab on the bottom) in the Opera iOS app.

In addition to the chatbot, Opera for iOS includes a built-in ad blocker and supports Apple Intelligent Tracking Prevention, which limits cross-site tracking. The browser also has a built-in VPN service you can use for free. The updated app with Aria is available today in 180 countries, including the US and the European Union.

Measuring a mere 72 x 40.7 x 14.1 mm — just over half the length of the original NES controller — the 8BitDo Micro is a spiritual successor to the company’s Zero line of similarly minuscule gamepads. It also hurts my hands just to look at it.

The 8BitDo Micro pairs via Bluetooth with the Nintendo Switch, Android and Raspberry Pi. The wee little thing weighs 24.8 grams, includes a mode-switching button and supports button mapping via 8BitDo Ultimate Software. The company says it has a 180mAh battery that will last 10 hours of playtime and can fully recharge in one to two hours. However, it also works in wired mode (via USB-C) when you don’t mind being tethered to your gaming system.

8BitDo

The controller skips analog sticks in favor of a lone D-Pad. It includes four standard action buttons (A, B, X, Y), face buttons (plus, minus, star and checkered flag) and shoulder bumpers / triggers. (The latter is one way it differs from 8BitDo’s Zero 2.) It can work in keyboard mode, which opens up some compatibility with macOS, Windows and iOS — and you can assign shortcuts to use it as a remote control for tasks like photo or video editing. It's an impressive amount of IO to cram into a form factor that makes Joy-Cons look like the front face of an arcade cabinet.

The 8BitDo Micro launches today in blue and green. It costs $25 and is available to order from Amazon.

8Bitdo / Aspercreme / Avery Menegus / Engadget

If you have an older Samsung foldable phone, tablet or watch, you may soon see some new features trickling down from the latest devices. The company announced today that the One UI 5.1.1 update — Samsung’s latest custom UI sitting atop Android — will roll out soon, bringing enhancements from the Galaxy Z Fold 5, Z Flip 5, Tab S9 series and Watch 6 series to pre-2023 gear. The features will support most of Samsung’s foldable phones and its recent tablets and smartwatches.

The One UI 5.1.1 update will support a long list of recent Samsung devices, but some may have to wait. It will roll out to Samsung’s stable of foldable phones, scheduled to reach the Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Z Fold 4 “starting this month,” while the Z Fold 3, Z Flip 3, Z Fold 2 and Z Flip will receive it “sequentially” later. Tablet multitasking updates will arrive for the Galaxy Tab S8, Tab S8+, Tab S8 Ultra, Tab S7, Tab S7+, Tab S7 FE, Tab S6 Lite, Tab A8, Tab A7 Lite, Tab Active 3 and Tab Active 4 Pro. Finally, new smartwatch features will support the Galaxy Watch 5, Watch 5 Pro, Watch 4 and Watch 4 Classic.

Samsung’s foldable phone updates in One UI 5.1.1 make it easier to show or hide the Flex Mode Panel (the controls appearing on the bottom half of the screen when the phone is semi-folded). “When folding your phone in Flex Mode, the panel’s icon will float up the screen, allowing you easy access,” the company wrote. “Enjoy a more personalized Flex Mode Panel experience by simply dragging and dropping the icon on the toolbar.” In addition, Samsung says the media play bar button (now including 10-second fast forward and rewind buttons) will be more prominent and simpler to find when the Flex Mode Panel activates. You’ll also be able to press down on the timeline to scrub through media more efficiently.

Cherlynn Low / Engadget

Samsung is tweaking multitasking on recent tablets and foldables, making switching to multi-window from pop-up window modes easier by long-pressing the handle. It also adds two-handed drag and drop, which lets you hold your finger down on a document from one app, use your other hand to open something else and then drag the file onto it for sharing or storage. The company also says the Z Fold 4 and Tab S8’s taskbar will be faster and include more recent apps. “Now, the Taskbar enables lightning-fast task switching with access to up to four recent apps,” Samsung said.

On the smartwatch front, the company is adding sleep-tracking upgrades from the Galaxy Watch 6 to older wearables. The changes include “a more intuitive UI” with the additions of Sleep Score Factors, Sleep Consistency and Sleep Animal Symbols. Sleep Coaching will also be available on the watch without looking at your paired phone. The Galaxy Watch can also automatically adjust SmartThings home devices for a more rest-inducing ambiance at bedtime.

Sam Rutherford / Engadget

Smartwatches will also receive fitness updates. The Watch 6’s Personalized Heart Rate Zone feature trickles down; it analyzes your physical abilities and “defines five optimal running intensity levels to help users set their own goals based on their ability — from burning fat to high intensity workout.” The Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 4 series will also add Irregular Heart Rhythm Notifications in the update, which could be a lifesaver for some.

Meanwhile, Track Run, which (as its name suggests) records your runs on a track, also makes its way from the Watch 6. The Galaxy Watch 5 Pro will have access to a GPX File Database for downloading map data to your watch. Finally, One UI 5.1.1. lets you control the Flip 4’s camera with a paired Galaxy Watch. A new quick-access button will let you use your watch as a remote shutter, and it also lets you switch camera modes and control zoom levels.