There is an apparently new iOS 18 security feature that reboots iPhones that haven’t been unlocked in a few days, frustrating police by making it harder to break into suspects’ iPhones, according to 404 Media.

404 Media, which first reported police warnings about the reboots on Thursday, writes that restarted iPhones enter a more secure “Before First Unlock,” or BFU state. Now, it seems Apple added “inactivity reboot” code in iOS 18.1 that triggers iPhones to restart after they’ve been locked for four days, Chris Wade, who founded mobile analysis company Corellium, told the outlet.

The code appears below in screenshots posted by Dr. -Ing. Jiska Classen, a Hasso Plattner Institute research group leader.

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Black Friday won’t be here for several more weeks, but the holiday promos are beginning to take shape at Amazon, Best Buy, and other retailers. We expect to see steep discounts on a number of gaming goods when many of the early sales kick off next week, but if you want to shop ahead of time, Seagate’s 2TB Storage Expansion Card for the Xbox Series X / S is already matching its all-time low of $199.99 ($160 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Seagate’s online storefront.

While pricey, Seagate’s proprietary expansion cards are a great way to expand the storage capacity of your Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S. The NVMe-based, Microsoft-licensed cards — of which there are currently two — are incredibly easy to install, fast, and allow you to run...

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Google Photos continues to get new and improved features on a regular basis, and one of the most recent Android updates has focused on video editing. Even if you don’t have the latest Pixel 9 phone (which is required if you want to try out the weird new Reimagine tool), you can now speed up, slow down, and enhance your clips with a few taps as well as trim them down more easily.

You can also expect what Google calls “AI-powered video presets” on both the Android and iOS versions of Google Photos. After the app algorithm analyzes your clips, you get a choice of effects — trims, zooms, slow-mos — you can apply with a tap. The app takes the role of director and chooses where and how these tweaks should be applied.

When the changes arrive on...

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You know that thing where, just after you’ve opened Instagram and become invested in whatever video was already loaded, a new video pops in and seemingly yeets the old video into the void, never to be seen again? That’s a thing of the past, according to Instagram boss Adam Mosseri, who says in an AMA from his Instagram Story yesterday that the app now waits for you to scroll to show you the new stuff.

That behavior — which Instagram apparently called “rug pull” internally — wasn’t just some weird bug. Mosseri says the app did it “because we were trying to load new content, and it was taking a while, so we showed you something that was already downloaded in the meantime, and it is generally good for engagement.”

But that’s “really...

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I became so mired in the smart features, I forgot to walk.

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Arcane’s final season puts an even finer point on its story about revolutionary war.

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The Beatles have been nominated for two Grammys — nearly 50 years after the band officially split up. Their final song, called “Now and Then,” was restored last year with the help of AI, and is now up for record of the year alongside the likes of Beyoncé, Charlie XCX, Billie Eilish, and Taylor Swift. It’s also been nominated for best rock performance, where it goes up against Green Day, Pearl Jam, and The Black Keys.

Released in November 2023, “Now and Then” started as a demo recorded by John Lennon in the late 1970s. This recording, as well as “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love,” was given to Lennon’s three surviving bandmates in the ‘90s, with the hopes of including it in The Beatles Anthology project.

However, “Now and Then” was never...

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YouTube’s premium subscriptions are about to get more expensive for long-time subscribers with legacy plans in more places. In December, YouTube told US subscribers with legacy YouTube Premium plans (stemming from discontinued services Google Play Music or YouTube Red) they’d need to start paying the current $13.99 per month price in the new year.

YouTube Music users in Europe have posted emails they received announcing a price increase for them, too, and just like the US, some report getting three more months at the current price before the hike.

In an email to The Verge, YouTube communications manager Paul Pennington confirmed prices are increasing for both YouTube Premium, which removes ads on the streaming videos and includes access...

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“DJI’s $199 Neo selfie drone is going to be everywhere,” we wrote in September — while noting that the budget self-flying drone did have two major weaknesses over the competing $350 Hover X1. First, DJI’s drone didn’t shoot vertical video (a dealbreaker for TikTok and Instagram Reels influencers) and second, it couldn’t track our movements nearly as quickly as the competition.

But DJI is now fixing both, adding vertical video and dramatically increasing the Neo’s flight speed while tracking. According to DC Rainmaker, it’s now so fast it can keep up with cyclists, and surprisingly flies faster in tracking mode than it does with a controller.

Before the firmware update, the drone wasn’t able to keep up with him cycling at even 13 miles...

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When codirectors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods started thinking about who could play the antagonist in their new horror flick Heretic, they knew he had to have a few specific characteristics. The film is about a man who lures missionaries into his home, eventually turning a pleasant chat about religion into a nightmare scenario. So he had to be able to disarm with charm and humor, before switching gears to become intense and terrifying. “He had to have these moments of feeling dangerous, of feeling safe, contradictory traits that had to coalesce into something,” says Beck.

Early on in the casting process, the pair landed on a surprising name — and they couldn’t let it go. “As soon as we thought about him we were like: ‘This has to be Hugh...

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People across the country received racist text messages in the days after Donald Trump was elected to a second term for president, and now federal authorities are investigating.

“In multiple states, including Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, Black women, men, and students have reported receiving racist text messages from an unknown source, urging them to report to a plantation to pick cotton,” the NAACP said in a press release. Messages said variations of, “You have been selected to be a house slave,” or “You have been selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation,” according to screenshots and news reports. They also often instruct recipients on where to go or when to be ready “With all of your belongings.”

CBS...

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It’s “virtually certain” that 2024 will go down in the books as the hottest year yet. The planet is on track to pass a worrying threshold when it comes to global average temperatures, warns the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

After a scorching summer, and with countries making slow progress on climate change, it’s not too surprising that 2024 is going to be off the charts. Greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels are pushing temperatures higher, forcing communities around the world to adapt to harsh new realities.

“Humanity’s torching the planet and paying the price,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in remarks yesterday.

Both Copernicus and the World...

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We’re flush with great options for noise-canceling headphones that sound good, but if you care most about sound quality (without spending pricey audiophile money) a great choice is the Bowers and Wilkins PX7 S2e — which are on sale for $279 ($120 off) in all five color options at Amazon, Best Buy, and direct from Bowers and Wilkins.

The PX7 S2e may not have the most charming sounding name, but they do have a clean design and warm, detailed sound that even competes with the much pricier AirPods Max. In addition to sounding excellent and offering niceties like a transparency mode, they favor proper physical buttons and a proper on / off switch over the touch controls found on some other headphones like Sony’s WH-1000XM5. Their 30 hours of...

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Apple’s redesigned Mac Mini M4 has ditched the previous M2 machine’s SSD that was soldered to the logic board, as confirmed by teardowns like this one posted on X, showing it has a single removable SSD module. It’s not Apple’s first desktop computer to go in this direction, as we saw similar modules in the Mac Studio and Mac Pro.

After this article was published, another teardown was published on the Brandon Geekabit YouTube channel, which also shows the removable drive and other parts.

However, as noted by MacRumors, it’s probably similar to their...

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Donald Trump’s second term means significant changes for AI, crypto, and EV policy.

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Google is generally rolling out its Gemini AI-powered Vids app that lets you create video presentations using a prompt. Some of Vids’ key features include letting Gemini auto-insert stock footage for you, generating a script, and making AI voiceovers so you don’t have to speak. Google advertises that the tool can help turn customer support articles into videos, make training videos, share company announcements, create meeting recaps, and more.

Vids will be available by default for Workspace organizations with access, but Google notes possible usage limits may apply to features like “Help me create” and AI voiceovers starting in 2026.

First announced in April, Vids lets you drop in relevant docs, slides, voiceovers, and video recordings...

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Corning, the maker of Gorilla Glass, is set to receive up to $32 million in funding under the CHIPS and Science Act. In an announcement on Friday, the US Commerce Department said the proposed funding will help Corning increase production of its glass products used in the chip-making process.

The announcement comes just days after the European Commission opened an antitrust investigation into Corning over whether it uses exclusive supply agreements to stifle competition. Both Samsung and Apple use Corning’s ultra-tough alkali-aluminosilicate glass — or Gorilla Glass — on their phones, tablets, and smartwatches.

However, the proposed CHIPS Act funding doesn’t have anything to do with Gorilla Glass. Corning will put the funding toward the...

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Google is introducing a new collection of modern templates to Google Slides the company says have been “professionally designed” to “cater to a wide range of use cases.” There are new templates for sales pitches, product roadmaps, lesson plans, book reports, workshop facilitation, and even “team game templates” for companies looking to bolster collaboration amongst their staff.

The new templates might make it easier for users moving over from Microsoft’s office suite and Powerpoint, similar to recent updates that brought easier table formatting to Google Sheets and tabs that make it easier to organize information in a single Google Doc.

The refreshed library of templates started rolling out to everyone this week, covering both personal...

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A collection of fun, affordable, and unique gifts fit for everyone on your list.

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