Beats might release its next-gen Studio Buds model on May 18th. MacRumors spotted an Amazon listing that showed images and details for Apple's Beats Studio Buds+ — the page even allowed customers to pre-order the earbuds until it was yanked offline. The earbuds, which were listed for $170 or $20 more than the current model, will have a transparent option that puts their internal components on display, similar to Nothing's design. That said, they will also be available in black and ivory for those who aren't quite as intrigued or enamored by transparent electronics. 

According to the listing, the Studio Buds+ can run up to 36 hours, instead of just 24 when combined with the charging case like the current model. Speaking of the charging case, it seems to retain its predecessor's shape, except it's most likely lighter. The upcoming product's item weight is 3.87 ounces, while the current Studio Buds' is listed as ‎4.5 ounces.

The Studio Buds+ microphones are three times larger than the current model's, and they also have a more powerful processor. Those components enable 1.6 more active noise cancelling power and a transparency mode — that is, the mode that lets some ambient noise in so the user remains aware of their surroundings — that's apparently twice as effective. 

The upcoming earbuds also support spatial audio for immersive sounds, "always on" Siri and compatibility with Apple's "Find My" tracking app. Plus, they feature one-touch pairing with both Apple and Android devices, as well as automatic switching that makes it easy to use them with multiple phones and tablets. Considering the Amazon page for the Studio Buds+ seems to have the complete details about the model, we'll likely see it go back up in the coming weeks when Apple is ready to take pre-orders. 

TikTok may soon let you create AI stylized avatars not unlike what you can with deep learning apps like Midjourney or Lensa, according to a Twitter thread from social media guru Matt Navarra seen by The Verge. Called AI Avatars, the tool lets you upload three to 10 photos of yourself and choose from five art styles. It will then generate up to 30 separate avatars in a couple of minutes. You can then download one, several or all of the images to use as a profile picture or in stories.

Though the styles are more limited than what you can get on Lensa, the results look pretty good — so the feature is bound to be popular. Likely for that reason, TikTok will only let you use it once a day to presumably avoid overloading servers. 

Matt Navara

Though generative AI images seem like harmless fun, they're not without some controversy. For both Lensa and Midjourney, artists have complained that the AI has sampled their work and borrowed from it a bit too liberally at times. And earlier this year, Getty launched a lawsuit against Stable Diffusion claiming it was scraping its data to generate art. 

Tinder is bolstering its photo verification system by letting members take video selfies to better prove who they are. The feature will actually be required for Photo Verification to earn Tinder's official blue checkmark. The site will also double-check your video selfie against profile photos. The aim is to guard against dating scammers, as a video is a lot harder to fake than a photo. 

To perform this verification, you just need to record video of yourself in the app using your smartphone’s front camera — again, something that would be quite difficult to cheat. Another dating site, Hinge, implemented a similar video verification system last year to combat scam accounts and catfishing. 

Performing the video selfie procedure also earns you status into Tinder's new "Photo Verified Cuties" club. That lets you choose to only see other photo verified member recommendations via their Message Settings. You can also ask a match to verify before they're allowed to send a message. If you currently have the verification check mark, Tinder will soon ask you to re-verify with a video selfie “in the coming months,” the company wrote. 

The feature could help a lot of users avoid scams if they use it correctly — and photo verification is free, unlike the Tinder Gold subscription service. However, the dating site still isn't forcing members to use photo verification, so you'll still want to stay on guard. 

We might see an electric vehicle based on Honda's e:Architecture, its dedicated EV platform, a year earlier than the company had previously announced. At a business briefing, wherein the automaker talked about earnings structure, battery initiatives and other things, it has announced that it's building a mid-to-large-size EV based on the e:Architecture and that will go on sale in North America by 2025. Honda previously said that vehicles adopting the architecture will be available in 2026. 

The company also announced that it's further developing its vehicle OS for use with mid-to-large-size EVs in North America and making sure that it allows for the "continuous advancement of vehicle functions and services for customers even after the vehicle is purchased." As TechCrunch notes, though, it didn't say if it's currently working on (or at least planning) a smaller vehicle based on its e:Architecture for the North American market at the moment. 

Before the vehicles based on its dedicated platform come out, Honda will launch the EVs it's currently developing with General Motors: The Acura ZDX and the Prologue, which is automaker's first electric SUV. Both vehicles will be available in 2024. In Japan, Honda is expected to release a series of small-size EVs, including an electric N-One, which is a mini box-like Kei car that can be commonly seen on the streets in the country, in 2024. It will also launch a small-size SUV for the Japanese market in 2026. 

Apple devices can already offer health insights, but they might soon tell you just how to improve. Bloombergsources claim Apple is developing an AI-based health coach, nicknamed Quartz, that draws on Apple Watch data to create personalized programs for exercise, diet and sleep. The offering will reportedly require a subscription and launch sometime in 2024, provided nothing changes.

In the near term, the Health app may become more useful. Apple is finally bringing Health to the iPad with this year's iPadOS 17 release, the insiders say. A further update will supposedly help you track your mood by answering questions about your day. You may also use Health to manage vision issues like nearsightedness. A recent rumor also hinted that Apple may release a journaling app to help document your days, much like Day One.

Apple has already declined to comment. If the claims are accurate, you'll most likely hear about all but the coach at WWDC on June 5th. The company is expected to unveil its long-expected mixed reality headset at the developer event, and rumors suggest the wearable may offer health-related features like a VR edition of Fitness+ and a meditation tool. This initial product would be aimed at developers and power users, but a more affordable follow-up is believed to be in the works.

A coaching app wouldn't be shocking. Apple is still leaning heavily on services to improve its bottom line, and Quartz may be appealing to those who would otherwise pay for a human coach to rethink their habits. Apple has already made health a major selling point for its devices, particularly the Apple Watch. Of course, the coach could further entrench Apple users — you may be less likely to switch to Android if you have to give up your watch and digital trainer at the same time.

Magpie Aviation announced a novel new approach to electric airplanes on Monday. Today’s battery technology (including CATL’s new, more efficient one) severely limits the practicality of zero-emission aircraft, leaving clean-energy innovators with two incomplete options: flying a plane full of batteries or one full of people — but not both. So the California-based startup wants to tie them together, extending the rear plane’s range by hundreds of miles.

Towing planes isn’t a new concept, with military use going back to World War II when aerial tows would pull smaller aircraft carrying troops and supplies. But applying it to the world of green transportation is new. Magpie Aviation’s concept uses one or more electric aircraft to act as a tractor plane towing a passenger (or cargo) aircraft using a long cable. The towed plane would have enough battery power for takeoff, landing and flying to alternate airports but not enough to fly the full distance on its own, as reported byAeroTime.

The lead plane would take on the bulk of the traction, and when its battery is depleted, it could hand off towing duties to another electric towing aircraft to extend the rear plane’s range. Magpie CEO Damon Vander Lind summarized toAviation Week, “You get towed until you’ve depleted down to your reserve in the lead aircraft, and then you swap in another tow aircraft.” Although it’s still a regional solution impractical for cross-country or international flights, Vander Lind says it could allow for a trip from San Francisco to Seattle — far beyond the sub-regional distances battery-powered passenger flights can travel on their own.

Magpie says it’s conducted successful small-scale tests using a synthetic fiber rope around 330 ft. long; the company envisions a later commercial version to use nearly mile-long cables. The startup plans to scale up its testing gradually and believes it could be implemented commercially by 2030. It expects advances in battery tech to allow it to tow single-aisle airliners eventually. Magpie suggests that the concept, mainly targeting electric planes, could also work with hybrid, hydrogen and standard aircraft in low-power modes. Additionally, the company says it’s working with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) with an eye toward certification.

“It sounds kind of crazy, but we kept coming back to it because we couldn’t find any reason why we couldn’t do it,” said Vander Lind. “While our modeling shows that there is an advantage to doing a custom tow aircraft like this, we get a big advantage because the more expensive and critical passenger- and cargo-carrying ‘main aircraft’ has similar requirements to today’s aircraft and so adapts well to existing in-operation and already-in-development platforms. Remember that if we want to hit a zero-carbon 2050 goal, an airliner has a 30-year life, so we’re already at the point where airlines have to think hard about the operating life of the assets that they are buying today.”

It should now be easier to deduce whether Twitter has restricted the visibility of a tweet over a possible violation of the company's hateful conduct policy. Twitter has started applying a label to tweets that it believes breaks those rules, as it recently pledged to do.

When Twitter detects a tweet that may violate the policy, it will limit the reach of the post and apply a label that reads "Visibility limited: this tweet may violate Twitter's rules against hateful conduct." The company plans to expand the labels to include more types of policy violations in the coming months.

Twitter says it may limit the visibility of rulebreaking tweets by excluding them from search results, as well as from the For You and Following timelines. Such tweets may be downranked in replies and it may not be possibly to reply to them, retweet them, bookmark them or pin them to profiles.

Twitter noted that it may incorrectly label a tweet as one that violates its rules, so the authors of such tweets can effectively appeal the decision by providing feedback. However, the company said it may not acknowledge the feedback or restore the tweet's typical reach.

The company is taking a looser approach to moderation under current owner Elon Musk as it has adopted a "Freedom of Speech, not Freedom of Reach" philosophy. For instance, it quietly updated the hateful conduct policy this month to lift a ban on misgendering and deadnaming transgender people.

Since 2020, Zelim, a little-known startup based out of the UK, has been quietly working to change how first responders take on maritime rescues. “We are here to make unmanned search and rescue normal,” the company declares on its website. An accompanying YouTube video details some of the technologies it’s developing to realize that vision. One of those solutions, an automated rescue craft called the Guardian, is a step closer to reality.

On Tuesday, Zelim announced the craft will integrate the SM300 remote control and command system from Sea Machines, a firm that specializes in autonomous and computer vision software for sea vessels. According to Zelim, the system will allow the Guardian to carry out search and rescue operations on its own. It will also allow first responders to pilot the craft remotely from a “command center anywhere in the world.” The vessel will also integrate Zelim’s own SARBox tech for detecting and tracking overboard sailors and passengers. Once the system detects someone, the Guardian will deploy Zelim’s Swift solution, a device that looks like a conveyor belt, to pull people from the water. “This combination of technologies gives the vessel a unique capability and is a global first for the maritime industry,” the company claims.

Zelim envisions the Guardian launching from a mothership. Since it’s a fully automated craft, the Guardian can venture out into conditions that would be normally deemed too dangerous for a human crew. In that way, not only would it reduce the risk to first responders, but it could also mean the difference between life and death when time is critical. Zelim expects to begin putting the Guardian through extensive sea trials starting later this year.

Review aggregation site Metacritic promises to improve its moderation system after the recent release of DLC for Horizon Forbidden West prompted a rash of negative review bombing. This story contains spoilers for Burning Shores, so stop reading now if you don't want to know some story events from the game.

The DLC in question, Burning Shores, features an option for a same-gender kiss as part of a storyline involving protagonist Aloy and a warrior queen named Sekya. This is a completely optional event, but it seemed to have prompted an onslaught of keyboard warriors with a Google alert set for the word “woke.” 

The dedicated Burning Shores page was slammed with negative user reviews, which is an all-too common practice nowadays. Metacritic’s parent company Fandom has called out many of these reviews for being “abusive and disrespectful.” Keep in mind, this instance involves a small voluntary event that only appears as an option for certain players if they pursue prior flirtatious dialogue choices.

Fandom says that Metacritic “is a place of belonging for all fans” and that it takes “online trust and safety very seriously.” To that end, company reps say they are “currently evolving our processes and tools” surrounding reviews and content moderation. It has not announced any specific changes. In the meantime, Metacritic points to what the current system is doing right.

“Our team reviews each and every report of abuse (including but not limited to racist, sexist, homophobic, insults to other users, etc) and if violations occur, the reviews are removed,” Metacritic wrote in a statement to Eurogamer.

Of course, this is not the first incidence of review bombing to plague the platform and not the first time Metacritic has implemented changes to stem the tide. The Last of Us Part II received a glut of hateful reviews for all-too-similar reasons, which forced the aggregator to mandate a 36-hour waiting period after a game’s release to open up reviews to the general public. Steam did something similar, as user reviews are accompanied by the amount of time the person actually spent playing the game. The changes Metacritic made in 2020 clearly didn't make a difference in this case, so we'll see if the company has more concrete plans to protect its platform.

Pit Stops in Formula E racing have always been a little complicated. For the electric racing series' first few seasons, divers had to swap cars halfway through the race due to battery limitations. That issue was fixed with a newer, higher capacity car design in 2018, but that eliminated and excitement of having a functional pitstop. Now, the fast battery charging system designed to bring pitstops back to Formula E racing is being delayed until next season.

"The technology is there," Formula E cofounder Alberto Longo told Motorsport Total. "It's working and at the moment many of the people are suffering with the supply chain, and that's the main issue why we haven't been able to put it in work this season." The updated pit stops were planned to debut halfway through the 2023 season with the new Gen3 Formula E cars, but at this point it would only be ready for the last few races of the season.

It's more than just a logistical problem: the new system could drastically change how drivers approach the race. In addition to reintroducing mandatory pit stops, each time a driver uses one of the quick charging stations, they will earn two "attack charges" that would give their vehicle a temporary boost in power for a limited time. The current rules already have an attack mode, but this change in how it is earned and used could have a profound effect on performance partway through the season.

"It will have a big impact on the sporting format and to do that only in the three or four races at the end the season, even though if we are capable of doing it, maybe it's not the right decision," Longo said. "We would love to have it this season, but I don't think at the moment it's totally viable to implement it."