Author name: Tim Belzer

for-the-first-time,-a-privately-developed-aircraft-has-flown-faster-than-sound

For the first time, a privately developed aircraft has flown faster than sound

Tech, Uncategorized / /

A new generation of companies, including Boom Supersonic, are aiming to meld new ideas, technology, and a commercial approach to develop more cost-effective travel at supersonic speeds. The significance of Tuesday’s flight is that it marks the first time one of these companies has built and flown its own vehicle above the speed of sound.

Now, on to the real thing

Although this is an important and notable step—this flight was the culmination of 11 successful test flights of the XB-1 since March 2024—it is only a step along the path toward development and operation of a commercially successful supersonic aircraft. Now Boom must build the real thing.

The company said the XB-1 demonstrator validates many of the key technologies that will be incorporated into Overture, including carbon-fiber composites, digital stability augmentation, and supersonic intakes. However, Overture will feature a different propulsion system named Symphony. The company is working with several partners, including Florida Turbine Technologies for engine design, GE Additive for additive technology design consulting, and StandardAero for maintenance to develop the engine.

There appears to be plenty of demand in the commercial air travel industry for a company that can develop and deliver supersonic aircraft to the market.

Boom Supersonic said it has taken 130 orders and pre-orders from American Airlines, United Airlines, and Japan Airlines for the Overture aircraft. In 2024, Boom said it completed construction on the Overture “Superfactory” in Greensboro, North Carolina, which will scale to produce 66 Overture aircraft per year. Boom is hoping to start delivering on those orders before the end of the decade.

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pebble’s-founder-wants-to-relaunch-the-e-paper-smartwatch-for-its-fans

Pebble’s founder wants to relaunch the e-paper smartwatch for its fans

eric migicovsky, fitbit, Google, Pebble, smartwatch, smartwatches, Tech / /

With that code, Migicovsky can address the second reason for a new Pebble—nothing has really replaced the original. On his blog, Migicovsky defines the core of Pebble’s appeal: always-on screen; long battery life; a “simple and beautiful user experience” focused on useful essentials; physical buttons; and “Hackable,” including custom watchfaces.

Migicovsky writes that a small team is tackling the hardware aspect, making a watch that runs PebbleOS and “basically has the same specs and features as Pebble” but with “fun new stuff as well.” Crucially, they’re taking a different path than the original Pebble company:

“This time round, we’re keeping things simple. Lessons were learned last time! I’m building a small, narrowly focused company to make these watches. I don’t envision raising money from investors, or hiring a big team. The emphasis is on sustainability. I want to keep making cool gadgets and keep Pebble going long into the future.”

Still not an Apple Watch, by design

Pebble watch showing a text watchface (reading 12:27 p.m.), with greenh silicone band and prominent side button.

The Pebble 2 HR, the last Pebble widely shipped.

Credit: Valentina Palladino

The Pebble 2 HR, the last Pebble widely shipped. Credit: Valentina Palladino

Ars asked Migicovsky by email if modern-day Pebbles would have better interoperability with Apple’s iPhones than the original models. “No, even less now!” Migicovsky replied, pointing to the Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Apple in 2024. That lawsuit claims that Apple “limited the functionality of third-party smartwatches” to keep people using Apple Watches and then, as a result, less likely to switch away from iPhones.

Apple has limited the functionality of third-party smartwatches so that users who purchase the Apple Watch face substantial out-of-pocket costs if they do not keep buying iPhones. The core functionality Migicovsky detailed, he wrote, was still possible on iOS. Certain advanced features, like replying to notifications with voice dictation, may be limited to Android phones.

Migicovsky’s site and blog do not set a timeline for new hardware. His last major project, the multi-protocol chat app Beeper, was sold to WordPress.com owner Automattic in April 2024, following a protracted battle with Apple over access to its iMessage protocol.

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with-ios-18.3,-apple-intelligence-is-now-on-by-default

With iOS 18.3, Apple Intelligence is now on by default

Apple, HomePod, iOS, ios 18, ios 18.3, iPadOS, macOS, macOS Sequoia 15, macOS Sequoia 15.3, Tech, tvos, visionOS, watchos, watchOS 11, watchOS 11.3 / /

As is custom, Apple rolled out software updates to all its platforms at once today. All users should now have access to the public releases of iOS 18.3, macOS Sequoia 15.3, watchOS 11.3, iPadOS 15.3, tvOS 15.3, and visionOS 2.3.

Also, as usual, the iOS update is the meatiest of the bunch. Most of the changes relate to Apple Intelligence, a suite of features built on deep learning models. The first Apple Intelligence features were introduced in iOS 18, with additional ones added in iOS 18.1 and iOS 18.2

iOS 18.3 doesn’t add any significant new features to Apple Intelligence—instead, it tweaks what’s already there. Whereas Apple Intelligence was opt-in in previous OS versions, it is now on by default in iOS 18.3 on supported devices.

For the most part, that shouldn’t be a noticeable change for the majority of users, except for one thing: notification summaries. As we’ve reported, the feature that summarizes large batches of notifications using a large language model is hit-and-miss at best.

For most apps, not much has changed on that front, but Apple announced that with iOS 18.3, it’s temporarily disabling notification summaries for apps from the “News & Entertainment” category in light of criticisms by the BBC and others about how the feature was getting the substance of headlines wrong. The feature will still mess up summarizing your text messages and emails, though.

Apple says it has changed the presentation of summaries to make it clearer that they are distinct from other, non-AI generated summaries and that they are in beta and may be inaccurate.

Other updates include one to visual intelligence, a feature available on the most recent phones that gives you information on objects your camera is focused on. It can now identify more plants and animals, and you can create calendar events from flyers or posters seen in your viewfinder.

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anthropic-builds-rag-directly-into-claude-models-with-new-citations-api

Anthropic builds RAG directly into Claude models with new Citations API

AI, AI Citations, AI confabulation, AI hallucination, Anthropic Claude, Citations, Claude, large language models, machine learning, openai / /

Willison notes that while citing sources helps verify accuracy, building a system that does it well “can be quite tricky,” but Citations appears to be a step in the right direction by building RAG capability directly into the model.

Apparently, that capability is not a new thing. Anthropic’s Alex Albert wrote on X, “Under the hood, Claude is trained to cite sources. With Citations, we are exposing this ability to devs. To use Citations, users can pass a new “citations: enabled:true” parameter on any document type they send through the API.”

Early adopter reports promising results

The company released Citations for Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Claude 3.5 Haiku models through both the Anthropic API and Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform, but it’s apparently already getting some use in the field.

Anthropic says that Thomson Reuters, which uses Claude to power its CoCounsel legal AI reference platform, is looking forward to using Citations in a way that helps “minimize hallucination risk but also strengthens trust in AI-generated content.”

Additionally, financial technology company Endex told Anthropic that Citations reduced their source confabulations from 10 percent to zero while increasing references per response by 20 percent, according to CEO Tarun Amasa.

Despite these claims, relying on any LLM to accurately relay reference information is still a risk until the technology is more deeply studied and proven in the field.

Anthropic will charge users its standard token-based pricing, though quoted text in responses won’t count toward output token costs. Sourcing a 100-page document as a reference would cost approximately $0.30 with Claude 3.5 Sonnet or $0.08 with Claude 3.5 Haiku, according to Anthropic’s standard API pricing.

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backdoor-infecting-vpns-used-“magic-packets”-for-stealth-and-security

Backdoor infecting VPNs used “magic packets” for stealth and security

backdoors, Biz & IT, juniper, magic packets, Security, vpns / /

When threat actors use backdoor malware to gain access to a network, they want to make sure all their hard work can’t be leveraged by competing groups or detected by defenders. One countermeasure is to equip the backdoor with a passive agent that remains dormant until it receives what’s known in the business as a “magic packet.” On Thursday, researchers revealed that a never-before-seen backdoor that quietly took hold of dozens of enterprise VPNs running Juniper Network’s Junos OS has been doing just that.

J-Magic, the tracking name for the backdoor, goes one step further to prevent unauthorized access. After receiving a magic packet hidden in the normal flow of TCP traffic, it relays a challenge to the device that sent it. The challenge comes in the form of a string of text that’s encrypted using the public portion of an RSA key. The initiating party must then respond with the corresponding plaintext, proving it has access to the secret key.

Open sesame

The lightweight backdoor is also notable because it resided only in memory, a trait that makes detection harder for defenders. The combination prompted researchers at Lumin Technology’s Black Lotus Lab to sit up and take notice.

“While this is not the first discovery of magic packet malware, there have only been a handful of campaigns in recent years,” the researchers wrote. “The combination of targeting Junos OS routers that serve as a VPN gateway and deploying a passive listening in-memory only agent, makes this an interesting confluence of tradecraft worthy of further observation.”

The researchers found J-Magic on VirusTotal and determined that it had run inside the networks of 36 organizations. They still don’t know how the backdoor got installed. Here’s how the magic packet worked:

The passive agent is deployed to quietly observe all TCP traffic sent to the device. It discreetly analyzes the incoming packets and watches for one of five specific sets of data contained in them. The conditions are obscure enough to blend in with the normal flow of traffic that network defense products won’t detect a threat. At the same time, they’re unusual enough that they’re not likely to be found in normal traffic.

Backdoor infecting VPNs used “magic packets” for stealth and security Read More »

all-federal-agencies-ordered-to-terminate-remote-work—ideally-within-30-days

All federal agencies ordered to terminate remote work—ideally within 30 days

Donald Trump, Policy, remote work, return-to-office, telework / /

Exceptions may be granted

Ezell’s memo expanded criticism of the Biden administration’s approach to remote work, suggesting that it enabled federal unions’ alleged attempts “to abuse the collective-bargaining process to guarantee full-time telework into the indefinite future and forestall any requirement to return to the office.”

Suspecting that the “rampant use of telework is likely underreported,” the committee’s report concluded that “even the reported levels are excessive, there is little evidence that it is enhancing productivity or addressing recruitment and retention gaps, and there is evidence it is harming agency missions and citizen-facing services.”

To overcome these supposed deficiencies, the committee recommended that remote work policies be linked to performance metrics, rather than “employee preferences or union demands.” Any remote work that is granted should be tracked through automated systems, the report further prescribed, and any attempts for federal agencies to compete for talent using remote work perks should not be tolerated.

This will allow the government to alleviate the “national embarrassment” of empty offices and “dispose of unneeded property and terminate unnecessary leases,” the report said.

While some employees may be eligible for RTO exemptions—either to accommodate a disability or qualifying medical condition, or for some “other compelling reason certified by the agency head and the employee’s supervisor”—Ezell’s memo insisted that a general return-to-office push was necessary. He said that Trump’s presidential memo reflected “a simple reality” that “the only way to get employees back to the office is to adopt a centralized policy requiring return-to-work for all agencies across the federal government.”

“Seeking to cajole individual agencies to try to get employees to return to the worksite has not succeeded,” Ezell said.

Although Trump’s memo set no deadline for RTO efforts to begin, Ezell gave federal agency heads rather short notice to fall in line. All agencies must submit their RTO plans by 5 pm ET on Friday, January 24, Ezell’s memo said.

Those plans should specify “the date that the agency will be in full compliance with the new telework policy,” with a recommended deadline of 30 days to comply, Ezell said.

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doom:-the-dark-ages-wants-to-be-more-like-the-original-doom

Doom: The Dark Ages wants to be more like the original Doom

gaming / /

In place of Doom Eternal‘s “jump and shoot” gameplay loop, The Dark Ages focuses on more of a “stand and fight” mentality, the developers said. If Doom Eternal was like flying a fighter jet, then The Dark Ages is more like controlling a tank, they added by way of analogy.

Less fighter jet, more tank

Credit: Bethesda Softworks

Less fighter jet, more tank Credit: Bethesda Softworks

That means a “flatter” game space, where the old-fashioned “strafe-to-aim” strategies work more effectively than in recent Doom games, with less need to be constantly floating through the air. The developers say they’re returning to the slower projectile speeds of the original Doom games, too, allowing players to more easily weave between them in a sort of first-person take on a shmup pattern. At the same time, your own projectile weapons tend toward the medium to short range, the developers said, encouraging you to take the fight close to the enemies.

While staggering enemies to set up instant Glory Kills is still a core part of The Dark Ages, the developers said the system has been redesigned to avoid taking control away from the player for extended, repetitive canned animations. The new Glory Kill system allows for instant, physics-based attacks that can be activated from any angle without interrupting the gameplay flow.

The more things change

The Dark Ages developers also promised a more open design, where the usual more linear corridors are interspersed with larger playspaces that let you decide which direction to go and which objective to pursue in what order. And the standard shooting action will be broken up into specific sections where you control a 30-story mech or fly a powerful dragon.

*Fleetwood Mac voiceYou can go your own way…

Credit: Bethesda Softworks

*Fleetwood Mac voiceYou can go your own way… Credit: Bethesda Softworks

But the core game will still include the requisite raft of secret areas and hidden nooks to discover, the developers promised. This time around, though, those secrets are more directly tied to your power progression rather than just being collectible in-game trinkets, the developers said.

It’s all in service of pushing toward a game that feels “new but familiar,” Martin said. The Dark Ages is still about the same sense of exploration and power that all good Doom games capture. But Martin said the development team is comfortable experimenting with what that specific sense of power is, “especially if the change you make brings it closer to classic Doom.”

But “I want to play a Doom game,” he added. “We don’t [want to] change so much that it’s not a Doom game.

Doom: The Dark Ages is scheduled to hit Windows, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on May 15.

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george-rr.-martin-has-co-authored-a-physics-paper

George R.R. Martin has co-authored a physics paper

Science / /

They also suggest the existence of “cryptos”: Jokers and Aces with mutations that are largely unobservable, such as producing ultraviolet racing stripes on someone’s heart or imbuing “a resident of Iowa with the power of line-of-sight telepathic communication with narwhals. The first individual would be unaware of their Jokerism; the second would be an Ace but never known it.” (One might argue that communicating with narwhals might make one a Deuce.)

In the end, Tregillis and Martin came up with three ground rules: (1) cryptos exist, but how many of them exist is “unknown and unknowable”; (2) observable card turns would be distributed according to the 90:9:1 rule; and (3) viral outcomes would be determined by a multivariate probability distribution.

The resulting proposed model assumes two apparently random variables: severity of the transformation—i.e., how much the virus changes a person, either in the severity of a Joker’s deformation or the potency of an Ace’s superpower—and a mixing angle to address the existence of Joker-Aces. “Card turns that land sufficiently close to one axis will subjectively present as Aces, while otherwise they will present as Jokers or Joker-Aces,” the authors wrote.

The derived formula is one that takes into account the many different ways a given system can evolve (aka a Langrangian formulation). “We translated the abstract problem of Wild Card viral outcomes into a simple, concrete dynamical system. The time-averaged behavior of this system generates the statistical distribution of outcomes,” said Tregillis.

Tregillis acknowledges that this might not be a good exercise for the beginning physics student, given that it involves multiple steps and covers many concepts that younger students might not fully comprehend. Nor does he suggest adding it to the core curriculum. Instead, he recommends it for senior honors seminars to encourage students to explore an open-ended research question.

DOI: American Journal of Physics, 2025. 10.1119/5.0228859  (About DOIs).

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uk-opens-probe-into-google’s-and-apple’s-mobile-platforms

UK opens probe into Google’s and Apple’s mobile platforms

anittirust, Apple, cma, Google, Policy, syndication, UK / /

Last week, the CMA opened its first such case, reviewing Google’s dominance in search and advertising.

The CMA is already in the process of probing Google and Apple in a separate investigation into mobile web browsers and cloud gaming, which has provisionally found the two companies were “holding back competition” in browsers.

“Android’s openness has helped to expand choice, reduce prices, and democratize access to smartphones and apps. It’s the only example of a successful and viable open source mobile operating system,” said Oliver Bethell, Google’s senior director of competition.

“We favor a way forward that avoids stifling choice and opportunities for UK consumers and businesses alike, and without risk to UK growth prospects,” he added.

Apple, which says its app platform supports hundreds of thousands of UK jobs, said it would “continue to engage constructively” with the CMA.

“Apple believes in thriving and dynamic markets where innovation can flourish,” the company said. “We face competition in every segment and jurisdiction where we operate, and our focus is always the trust of our users.”

The CMA’s probe will add to the worldwide scrutiny that both companies are already facing over their dominance of the smartphone market.

Apple clashed with Brussels several times last year over the implementation of the Digital Markets Act, making changes to its platform after the European Commission accused the iPhone maker of failing to comply with its “online gatekeeper” rules.

If designated, the UK’s “strategic market status” lasts for a five-year period, and companies can be fined up to 10 percent of global turnover for breaching conduct rules.

© 2025 The Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved. Not to be redistributed, copied, or modified in any way.

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nasa-moves-swiftly-to-end-dei-programs,-ask-employees-to-“report”-violations

NASA moves swiftly to end DEI programs, ask employees to “report” violations

dei, NASA, Space / /

NASA’s acting administrator is moving swiftly to remove diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility—or DEIA—programs from the space agency.

In an email sent to agency employees on Wednesday afternoon, acting administrator Janet Petro wrote, “We are taking steps to close all agency DEIA offices and end all DEIA-related contracts in accordance with President Trump’s executive orders titled Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing and Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions.”

During his run for a second term as president, Trump campaigned on ending programs in the federal government that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. He signed executive orders to that effect shortly after his inauguration on Monday.

Programs seen as divisive

These programs had their roots in affirmative action but exploded in popularity half a decade ago amid Trump’s first presidency and the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements. DEI programs and officers became commonplace in academia and major US corporations. However, even before the election of Trump, the DEI movement appeared to have crested. For example, last year the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ended the use of diversity statements for faculty hiring.

In explaining NASA’s position, Petro said of the agency’s existing DEIA activities, “These programs divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination.”

Petro’s email is notable for its suggestion that some civil servants at NASA may have sought to shroud DEIA programs from the Trump administration since the presidential election in early November.

“We are aware of efforts by some in government to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language,” she wrote. “If you are aware of a change in any contract description or personnel position description since November 5, 2024 to obscure the connection between the contract and DEIA or similar ideologies, please report all facts and circumstances.”

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florida-man-eats-diet-of-butter,-cheese,-beef;-cholesterol-oozes-from-his-body

Florida man eats diet of butter, cheese, beef; cholesterol oozes from his body

beef, butter, Cheese, Cholesterol, health, JAMA Cardiology, xanthelasma / /

What could go wrong with eating an extremely high-fat diet of beef, cheese, and sticks of butter? Well, for one thing, your cholesterol levels could reach such stratospheric levels that lipids start oozing from your blood vessels, forming yellowish nodules on your skin.

That was the disturbing case of a man in Florida who showed up at a Tampa hospital with a three-week history of painless, yellow eruptions on the palms of his hands, soles of his feet, and elbows. His case was published today in JAMA Cardiology.

Painless yellowish nodules were observed on the patient’s palms (A) and elbows. B, Magnified view of the palmar lesions. These lesions are consistent with xanthelasma, likely resulting from severe hypercholesterolemia associated with a high-fat carnivore diet. Credit: JAMA Cardiologym 2024, Marmagkiolis et al.

The man, said to be in his 40s, told doctors that he had adopted a “carnivore diet” eight months prior. His diet included between 6 lbs and 9 lbs of cheese, sticks of butter, and daily hamburgers that had additional fat incorporated into them. Since taking on this brow-raising food plan, he claimed his weight dropped, his energy levels increased, and his “mental clarity” improved.

Meanwhile, his total cholesterol level exceeded 1,000 mg/dL. For context, an optimal total cholesterol level is under 200 mg/dL, while 240 mg/dL is considered the threshold for ‘high.’ Cardiologists noted that prior to going on his fatty diet, his cholesterol had been between 210 mg/dL to 300 mg/dL.

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anthropic-chief-says-ai-could-surpass-“almost-all-humans-at-almost-everything”-shortly-after-2027

Anthropic chief says AI could surpass “almost all humans at almost everything” shortly after 2027

agi, AI, AI assistants, AI investment, Amazon, Anthropic, Anthropic Claude, chatgpt, Claude, Daniela Amodei, Dario Amodei, Davos, Google, machine learning, Meta, openai, sam altman, superintelligence, Wall Street Journal / /

He then shared his concerns about how human-level AI models and robotics that are capable of replacing all human labor may require a complete re-think of how humans value both labor and themselves.

“We’ve recognized that we’ve reached the point as a technological civilization where the idea, there’s huge abundance and huge economic value, but the idea that the way to distribute that value is for humans to produce economic labor, and this is where they feel their sense of self worth,” he added. “Once that idea gets invalidated, we’re all going to have to sit down and figure it out.”

The eye-catching comments, similar to comments about AGI made recently by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, come as Anthropic negotiates a $2 billion funding round that would value the company at $60 billion. Amodei disclosed that Anthropic’s revenue multiplied tenfold in 2024.

Amodei distances himself from “AGI” term

Even with his dramatic predictions, Amodei distanced himself from a term for this advanced labor-replacing AI favored by Altman, “artificial general intelligence” (AGI), calling it in a separate CNBC interview from the same event in Switzerland a marketing term.

Instead, he prefers to describe future AI systems as a “country of geniuses in a data center,” he told CNBC. Amodei wrote in an October 2024 essay that such systems would need to be “smarter than a Nobel Prize winner across most relevant fields.”

On Monday, Google announced an additional $1 billion investment in Anthropic, bringing its total commitment to $3 billion. This follows Amazon’s $8 billion investment over the past 18 months. Amazon plans to integrate Claude models into future versions of its Alexa speaker.

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