Aggregator

Friends Aaron Pizzey, 30, and James Race, 39, found the rare item in a ploughed field near Stoke Ash in Suffolk, in April 2024.

Lila Moss, Iris Law and Romeo Beckham enjoyed a nepo baby night out on Monday as they ventured to London's St Clement Hotel for the Burberry London Fashion Week afterparty.

Monday Google opened preorders for its "Googlebook" laptops, pricing them at $899. A Google's blog post added that "At launch, you can choose between Intel Core Ultra Series 3 and Snapdragon X Elite processors" (paired with NPUs to power AI features). "Devices will hit shelves on October 4 in the U.S. and on October 5 in Canada, the U.K., Ireland, France, Germany, and Australia," TechCrunch points out. But "the real pull for the new devices is that they'll prominently feature Gemini's latest capabilities in a new format: the laptop." Google is trying to offer a laptop with unique features like an AI-powered cursor, vibe-coded widgets, and support for AI-enhanced dictation. The latter is a feature called Rambler, which cleans up messy, rambling brain dumps into readable text. The move is a bet that AI, specifically Google's Gemini, could be enough of a draw to get people to buy a new laptop that bakes in AI instead of running them via desktop apps you install or access through the browser... On the Googlebook, Google is trying to reinvent the "point-and-click" experience of desktop computing to now include an AI element: The cursor serves as a conduit to Gemini. The company suggests various ways this could be used, like highlighting content on a web page for Gemini to work with, asking Gemini to see if an email you've hovered your cursor over is suspicious, or selecting images and then asking Gemini to visualize them together... What's more interesting about the Googlebook is how it's seemingly part of Google's longer-term plan to capture a large part of the K-12 market that currently relies on Chromebooks and push them toward the company's Gemini AI. There are somewhere around 50 million Chromebooks in schools, used by students and educators, Google has said. In May, the company told TechCrunch that its current Chromebooks would continue to be supported, though many would become eligible to transition to the new Googlebook experience in the future... Flagship devices in the new range are being built by Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, and Lenovo, with materials like aluminum, magnesium alloy, and carbon fiber... Google says the device will offer up to 14 hours of battery life. Googlebooks will be decorated with an exterior Glowbar "which dances when you boot up, sweeps to show battery level, and supports other playful patterns," according to Google's blog post. "We're also opening Glowbar access to developers to build custom, interactive animations." After testing actual Googlebooks, The Verge's reviewer first acknowledges that "it might be just another Trojan horse for Gemini." Still, "The hardware is polished (since it's based on current laptops). The OS is familiar (if you've ever used a Chromebook). But most impressive, it integrates your Android phone with your PC so they feel more like one device. It's the culmination of a series of new ideas that blur the two devices together. "After my first look, I went from doubtful to excited by the prospect of Google pulling it all off..." The Asus was incredibly lightweight; the Lenovo has plenty of ports and an optional mouse with a matching Glowbar light; the Acer's convertible form factor allows some tablet-like use (and it's pretty affordable for a Panther Lake laptop). The HP had a great-looking screen and a latticeless keyboard I surprisingly didn't hate, and the Dell is basically a gold XPS 13 (which is excellent) but with a different chip... But everything really special about Googlebooks comes down to software... You can cast apps from an Android phone directly to a Googlebook, even without touching your phone. Googlebooks essentially have two app drawers: a G-logo start menu for installed Googlebook apps and a second one beside it that pulls up mobile apps from your phone. Click a phone app and you can fully use that app with the mouse and keyboard or the Googlebook's touchscreen. It's a bit like iPhone Mirroring on macOS, but the apps are individually extracted to the desktop OS instead of showing your whole phone interface. Googlebooks also have a nifty feature called Continue On where the icons of apps you're currently using on your phone appear in the bottom bar — allowing you to click it on the laptop and hand it off to the Googlebook. These app handoffs can transition to a native app or a web app, depending on how developers have programmed it... The other big way Googlebooks interact with an Android phone is Quick Access, allowing you to see and access all the files stored on your phone right in the desktop Files app... If you have an iPhone then you're limited to a Link to iOS app that just does some message syncing and replying... [W]hen it comes to mainline gaming, Nvidia's GeForce Now service is also coming to Googlebooks, and the first year is free with one of Google's new laptops. "It's not every day we get a new player in the desktop operating system and laptop spaces," the reviewer points out. "There seems to be a higher ceiling of potential with Googlebooks than there was with Chromebooks, along with some cool features, but Google has a lot to prove at higher prices than people are used to paying for its laptops."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Young people in some of England's most affluent areas are increasingly claiming disability benefits for ADHD and autism, new analysis reveals.

Mike Bracken says the dash to adopt sovereign AI risks giving more control to a handful of tech suppliers

A man has been airlifted to hospital after a crash on the M25 between a lorry and a motorbike.

A man has been airlifted to hospital after a crash on the M25 between a lorry and a motorbike.

The boss of the Post Office has urged ministers to save village branches from crippling hikes in business rates.

SHOPPING: Clinically proven to see results in just six weeks, Absolute Collagen's Marine Collagen Powder is a bestseller for a reason. And we have a discount code.

Richard Allen's defense attorneys alleged in an appeal on Monday that he was innocent of the 2017 killings of 14-year-old Liberty 'Libby' German and 13-year-old Abigail 'Abby'.

Thomas Broomfield, 41, was last seen at around 11.55am on Monday, September 21, in the Hythe area of Colchester.

Thomas Broomfield, 41, was last seen at around 11.55am on Monday, September 21, in the Hythe area of Colchester.

The Icelandic boss used forceful language in defending his team as they prepare to take on a side that the Football Association of Ireland wanted to have suspended from competitions.

The former world No 1 came up short in the women's singles final at Flushing Meadows, falling to a 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 defeat to rival Elena Rybakina, and lashed out following the match.

The world's only singing lemur uses special techniques shared with the very best opera singers, according to a new study.

Trump was unveiling his new granite helipad on the South Lawn surrounded by construction workers.

Vaccines can be lifesaving but they don't work so well for everybody, including those with reduced immunity - and this raises the risk of life-threatening infections such as flu and Covid.

Drivers are at a standstill on the M25 after reports of an incident, forcing long delays.

Seaver on Wednesday received a notice his security organizations - which provided protection for her Nashville home, museum and a warehouse - were being replaced by another company.

Girls really are better at paying attention than boys, and the difference is clear right after birth.