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Spotify and Instagram are cozying up for more seamless music sharing. Two new features make it easier for Spotify’s nearly 700 million users to share their favorite tunes. When sharing a Spotify track to Instagram Stories, a short snippet of the song will now be included. When people view the story, they’ll have an option to open the track in Spotify. They can do that by tapping the music sticker on your post. Spotify Along similar lines, Instagram Notes now lets you show your friends what you’re jamming out to. When creating a note, tap the music note symbol. Then, in the audio browser, choose “Share from Spotify.” The note will auto-update to show what you’re listening to at that point. (Or, if you’re not, it will display the next song you play within 30 minutes, so choose wisely.) Friends can tap your note to add the track to their Spotify likes. Inversely, Instagram integration is easier in the Spotify app. When sharing a currently playing track from there, a new Notes icon will appear next to other Instagram sharing options. The new features are available now (globally) on iOS and Android. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/instagram-adds-spotify-integration-to-stories-and-notes-195705816.html?src=rss

Google has announced plans to sell a custom version of its Gemini AI models for government agencies. “Gemini for Government” includes access to existing tools like NotebookLM, and “Google-quality enterprise search, video and image generation capabilities.” The AI platform is in direct competition with similar offerings from OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI. A big focus of Google’s pitch for Gemini for Government is the idea of automating administrative tasks with AI agents. The company touts pre-built Deep Research and Idea Generation agents that will be available to government agencies from the jump, but anyone who invests in the new AI platform will also get the ability to build custom agents of their own. Gemini for Government will also offer threat protection and data privacy features, and will be compliant with cloud security standards like Sec4 and FedRAMP. Google’s offering its AI platform for $0.50 per year for government agencies, with the option to pay more for extra security features. The low price is as much an enticement as it is a jab at OpenAI and Anthropic, who both announced $1 government AI deals in the last few months. These attempts to become government AI contractors are happening in the shadow of the AI Action Plan President Donald Trump announced in July. The Trump administration’s stated goal is to spur development, turn AI into an American export and remove “idealogical bias” from AI models, but the specifics of the plan are concerningly open to interpretation. Trump’s proposal asks federal agencies to withhold “AI-related” funding from states with “burdensome” AI regulations. It also directs the Federal Communications Commission to assume a role in regulating AI, placing even more theoretical power in the executive branch. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-is-selling-a-version-of-gemini-for-government-agencies-194221616.html?src=rss

Jay Blahnik is Apple’s vice president of fitness technologies and responsible for leading a team of about 100 people. After a lengthy period consulting for Nike, he joined the company in 2013 to help with the launch of the Apple Watch and programs such as Apple Fitness+. Today, The New York Times reported on allegations that Blahnik created a toxic workplace environment, with his behaviors described as “verbally abusive, manipulative and inappropriate.” He and Apple are currently being sued by one former employee, and the company has already settled a separate complaint against Blahnik that accused him of sexual harassment. In addition, sources told the Times that about a tenth of Blahnik’s reports have sought extended health or medical leave since 2022. Apple reportedly conducted an internal investigation into Blahnik but found no evidence of wrongdoing. Employees told the publication that they felt the company was more committed to protecting a notable executive than addressing workers’ concerns. “We strongly disagree with the premise of this story, and there are many inaccurate claims and mischaracterizations,” Lance Lin, a spokesperson from Apple, told the Times in response to the paper’s report. He declined to provide specifics on those inaccuracies and said the company did not discuss matters involving individual employees for privacy concerns. “We will continue to share the facts through the legal process.” This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/apple-fitness-exec-accused-of-creating-toxic-workplace-environment-185556474.html?src=rss

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) just announced an investigation into Tesla regarding its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) systems, according to a report by Electrek. The road safety regulator says the probe involves inconsistencies with how the company reports crashes regarding the aforementioned systems. The NHTSA requires automakers to report crashes involving autonomous and driver assistance systems within five days of being notified of them. The agency claims that Tesla has sometimes waited months to report these crashes. It’s worth remembering that the company’s vehicles are outfitted with technology that automatically records and sends out data regarding a collision within minutes of an accident. Tesla has acknowledged the issue but says this is all due to an error in its systems, which has since been fixed. However, the agency will continue the investigation, citing that it will “assess whether any reports of prior incidents remain outstanding and whether the reports that were submitted include all of the required and available data.” The NHTSA has good reason to not accept Tesla’s explanation at face value. It currently has other open investigations into the company. There’s one involving its remote parking feature that has allegedly caused a number of crashes and another looking into the efficacy of a recent software fix that followed a massive recall. NHTSA Tesla also recently lost a wrongful death case involving an Autopilot crash in which it was revealed in testimony that the company lied and misled police and plaintiffs to hide pertinent data. The company leads other auto manufacturers by a country mile when it comes to crashes involving driver assistance systems. Tesla vehicles were involved in the vast majority of total incidents reported to the NHTSA from 2021 to 2024. That translates to over 2,300 crashes, compared to 55 for second-place GM. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/feds-investigate-tesla-over-inaccurate-autopilot-and-fsd-crash-reports-175837772.html?src=rss

We learned in July that Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl would come to PlayStation later this year. On Thursday, developer GSC Gameworld gave us a specific release date: November 20. That’s exactly a year after its PC and Xbox launch. The PS5 version will support adaptive triggers, haptic feedback, gyro aiming and more. Meanwhile, PS5 Pro users will see upgraded resolution, shadows and reflections (among other enhancements). The game will be available in a $60 standard edition, an $80 deluxe one and a $110 ultimate edition. GSC Gameworld The game had quite a development process: It lasted 14 years. (Amusingly, “Stalker 2 sneaking up on a 2012 launch” was our first headline about the game.) GSC Gameworld was plagued by funding issues, a near shutdown and a transition to a new game engine. Then, Russia threw another wrench in the Ukrainian studio’s plans, with its 2022 invasion. Sadly, the company even lost a team member in the war. When the game finally launched in 2024, it still had plenty of bugs. However, the team has worked hard to patch those ever since. Hopefully, the PlayStation version will benefit from the extra clean-up time and offer a polished experience from day one. You can pre-order Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl today from the PlayStation Store. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/stalker-2-heart-of-chornobyl-is-coming-to-ps5-on-november-20-162656051.html?src=rss

Google’s seemingly unrelenting quest to infuse AI into every aspect of your online life just got a lot more global in scope, with the company expanding its AI Mode in Search to over 180 new countries. AI Mode has previously only been available in the US, India and the UK, and while English remains the only supported language right now, Google says it’ll add more soon. Google is also expanding its AI Mode’s agentic capabilities, so you can now use natural language to find restaurant reservations. Google says you can ask about getting a dinner reservation with conditions such as group size, date, location and your preference of cuisine, all of which be taken into consideration when AI Mode pulls in its results from across the web. Suggestions will be presented in list form with the available reservation slots. It’ll also provide a link to the booking page you need. Google also plans to add local service appointments and event ticketing capabilities soon, with Ticketmaster and StubHub among its partners. AI Mode leverages Google’s web-browsing AI agent Project Mariner’ its direct partners on Search and resources like Knowledge Graph and Google Maps when prompted to find you somewhere to eat. It has partnered with the likes of OpenTable, Resy and Tock to incorporate as many restaurants as possible and streamline the booking process. Right now, this feature is exclusive to those subscribed to the wildly expensive Google AI Ultra plan in the US, and can be accessed through its Labs platform. If you opt into the AI Mode experiment it can also remember your previous conversations and searches to give you results that more closely match your preferences. Finally, if your AI-powered conversations are simply too interesting to keep to yourself, Google will now let you bring others in when you tap the “Share” button on a response. This allows your chosen contact to join the conversation at that point and ask their own follow-up questions. Google uses planning trips or parties as examples of when you might want to collaborate with someone else on an AI-assisted task. The original sender can delete shared links whenever they like. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-ai-mode-is-expanding-to-180-countries-and-adding-an-agentic-restaurant-finder-154833417.html?src=rss

Apple is once again raising the price of its streaming service. Apple TV+ is shooting up to $13 per month, from $10 per month. This is effective immediately. Current subscribers will see the price change 30 days after the next renewal date. There’s one spot of good news here. The pricing for the yearly subscription remains unchanged, as does the cost of an Apple One bundle. Many platforms start cheap before slowly turning the heat up, using the drug dealer method of salesmanship. However, Apple really did a speed run here. The platform isn’t very old and cost $7 per month as recently as 2023. Now it’s nearly twice that amount. In a recent earnings call, the company said that overall Apple TV+ viewership rose “strong double digits year over year.” The platform has been generating mainstream buzz. Severance has proven to be a gigantic hit and The Studio scooped up plenty of Emmy nominations this year. The platform’s also a sci-fi powerhouse, releasing shows like For All Mankind, Invasion, Foundation, Murderbot, Silo and Dark Matter, among others. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/apple-tv-subscriptions-just-rose-to-13-a-month-150516370.html?src=rss

In July, Proton, the company behind Proton Mail, released Lumo, a privacy-focused AI chatbot. Now, just under a month later, Proton has begun rolling out Lumo 1.1 to both free and paying users, and according to the company, the updated assistant “performs significantly better across the board” relative to its predecessor. Just how much better is the new version of Lumo? Proton claims it offers a 170 percent improvement in context understanding, meaning the chatbot is able to more accurately answer questions based on documents and data users share with it. It’s also 40 percent better at generating working code, and 200 percent better at working through multi-step problems, as well as using the right tools to tackle tricky prompts. Proton One area where the original release felt like it wasn’t up to the level of the competition was when it came to providing answers about current events. Thanks to a better web search tool, Proton says Lumo 1.1 should provide more accurate answers while suffering from fewer hallucinations. Proton doesn’t say how it measured those improvements, but the company did share a handful of screenshots that compare the responses generated by Lumo 1.1 and 1.0. If nothing else, the new chatbot does a better job of formatting its answers in a way that’s easy to follow. As before, any conversations you have with Lumo are encrypted, with no logs shared with Proton or any other company. Proton is also releasing the code for Lumo’s iOS and Android apps so the open source community can verify the company’s security credentials. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/the-first-update-for-protons-privacy-focused-chatbot-offers-major-performance-improvements-145255425.html?src=rss

If you tried the demo for upcoming climbing game Cairn and somehow found it too easy, you’re in for a treat. Developer The Game Bakers announced at the latest Future Games Show that Cairn will include a “Free Solo” mode that lets you tackle the game’s already difficult climbs without pitons or a rope. A typical climb in Cairn — and most rock climbing games for that matter — tasks you with managing rope, and the pitons you use to anchor it to a rock face. You add pitons as you climb so that in the event you slip, you only fall to your last piton rather than all the way to the ground. In Free Solo mode, you don’t have that safety net, turning each climb into more of a roguelike run. In the real life rock climbing world, “Free Solo” climbing is when you tackle a climb without a partner or traditional equipment. The term rose to mainstream relevance after the release of the documentary Free Solo, which followed climber Alex Honnold as he trained for and ultimately ascended El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. Adding a dangerous style of climbing to what’s already a difficult game feels appropriate in this case. On top of a climbing mechanic that makes you move each limb individually, Cairn also requires you to manage your hunger, thirst and an inventory of supplies. At least based on its demo, the game is far more demanding then something like Jusant, which was much more concerned with making its traversal fun and expressive rather than realistically difficult.  If you’re itching for punishment, the Cairn demo is available to download now on PS5 and PC. The game will be released on both platforms on November 5, 2025. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/climbing-game-cairn-will-have-a-free-solo-mode-with-no-rope-213450638.html?src=rss

Bloomberg has published a deep dive into operations at Oracle, chronicling the software giant’s rise in cloud computing and current push into powering artificial intelligence projects. The publication reported that Oracle has promised to develop tens of billions of dollars in data centers, which have become a hot business. Notably, Oracle landed a deal to back operations at OpenAI, in a partnership that will give the AI company 4.5 gigawatts of computing power. According to Bloomberg, that’s enough energy to power “millions of American homes.” So far, Oracle has seemed willing to throw money at its AI data center projects, no matter how expensive or irresponsible the needs might be. For instance, a source said the company plans to spend more than $1 billion a year powering a single data center in Texas with gas generators rather than waiting for a utility connection to be built. When completed, this data center is expected to be one of the largest known sites, with computing power of 1.4 gigawatts. In addition to the huge monetary cost, such a project can also have negative human and environmental impact. The Elon Musk-owned xAI is under fire after a supercomputer for its artificial intelligence operations became a primary source of air pollution in Memphis thanks to methane-powered turbines. Other majors, including Google, Microsoft and Meta, have chosen to try nuclear power for their data center projects, which comes with its own potential complications and risks.  Purely on the financial side, Oracle’s decision to invest so much so quickly meant the company reported its first negative annual cash flow since 1990. Should the current rates of AI investment turn out to be a bubble, it could be very bad news to have many billions of dollars on the line.  This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/oracle-will-reportedly-power-a-giant-data-center-with-gas-generators-211658314.html?src=rss