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Dr. Janette Nesheiwat withdrew her nomination for Surgeon General after questions about her credentials. Dr. Casey Means has a medical degree from Stanford and a best-selling book on metabolic health.

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An Environmental Protection Agency plan to eliminate its Energy Star offices would end a decades-old program that gave consumers a choice to buy environmentally friendly electronics and save money on bills, consumer and environmental groups said.

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The immediate impact of the cargo decline affects virtually every business around the ports, but port officials say this downturn will soon be felt much more broadly.

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The long-awaited phone will make its debut at a virtual Unpacked event. Here's everything to know and how to tune in.

• Samsung's next Galaxy Unpacked is a virtual-only affair on May 12, 2025
• The invite teases an ultra-thin phone with the text "Beyond slim"
• All signs are pointing to a formal reveal of the Galaxy S25 Edge, which will feature a 200MP wide lens

Ever since Samsung teased its ultra-slim variant of the Galaxy S25 family at its January 2025 Unpacked, and since then brought the Galaxy S25 Edge on a bit of a world tour with a stop at MWC, we’ve all been wondering when the tech giant would share more. Well, now we know.

Samsung’s just dropped invites for its next Galaxy Unpacked, and it’s an entirely virtual affair with a clear focus – the Galaxy S25 Edge. Even with its ultra-thin design that will land at under the Galaxy S25's 7.2-milimeters, it's still poking its way through the center of the invite.

The invite image reveals, under a cloth of some kind, the super slim silhouette. It’s accompanied by “Beyond slim” on the left and “May 12, 2025 Live on samsung.com” on the right.

That basically gives it away, and Samsung will stream this Galaxy Unpacked at 8pm ET/5pm PT/1am BST/ (10am AEST on May 13, 2025 in Australia) live on its site and on YouTube.

(Image credit: Samsung)

A shared blog post from Samsung details much more on this addition to the Galaxy S lineup and actually names the Galaxy S25 Edge, writing, “This is more than a slim smartphone.” It teases that the Galaxy S25 Edge will offer flagship-level performance with ‘superior portability’ without compromising on any of it, seemingly.

It also confirms a key spec for the Edge that’s been rummored alongside many others. “Even with its slim form, Galaxy S25 Edge’s 200MP wide lens continues Galaxy’s iconic camera experience, delivering pro-grade capabilities to intuitively capture the world around you,” thus confirming the ultra-slim phone will have a very sharp main shooter. It will also match the Galaxy S25 Ultra, which has the same sensor for the primary lens.

Samsung’s really highlighting that it took a lot of engineering work to make the Galaxy S25 Edge a reality and that it didn’t have any shortcomings that would have dropped it from the mainline Galaxy S family of phones. Much of the May 12 Galaxy Unpacked will likely delve into how this device came to be.

(Image credit: Future/Lance Ulanoff)

We still expect the Galaxy S25 Edge to arrive at a premium price, somewhere above $999 / £999 / AU$1,699. It should feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy inside, considering that’s powering the rest of the lineup. We also expect it to match 12GB of RAM, which should make it a speedy and efficient phone, but we also don’t yet know what size battery Samsung’s been able to squeeze inside the svelte frame.

The latest rumors point to the Galaxy S25 Edge having a titanium frame, weighing only 163 grams, and only 5.85 millimeters thick. That same report claims the Galaxy S25 Edge will have a 6.7-inch AMOLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate, which aligns with previous reports.

The best news is that we’re just days away from this being official and Samsung telling us all about the Galaxy S25 Edge. It’s also the start of a new category of sorts – ultra-slim, premium smartphones for the masses, and Samsung will, in turn, be beating Apple to the punch before the much-rumored iPhone 17 Air sees the light of day.

Now, if you’re already sold on the Galaxy S25 Edge – maybe you’ve been holding out on getting an S25, S25 Plus, or S25 Ultra – Samsung is rolling out an early offer. You can sign up to reserve the next Galaxy, with no commitment to purchasing or strings attached, and score a $50 Samsung Credit towards the S25 Edge.

You can now sign up at Samsung to reserve the next Galaxy and score a $50 credit towards the next device, the Galaxy S25 Edge. As with past reserve offers, this is entirely commitment-free and doesn't cost anything.View Deal

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• Aoostar GT37 mini PC delivers 12-core performance, 80 TOPS of AI, and it still fits in your hand
• The powerful Radeon 890M GPU will surprise you
• Add an external GPU, and it becomes a desktop killer with real bite

The Aoostar GT37 is a compact mini PC powered by AMD’s Ryzen AI 9 HX-370 processor, designed to handle demanding workloads in professional, creative, and gaming contexts.

Built on a 4nm process, the CPU features 12 cores - four high-performance Zen 5 and eight efficiency-focused Zen 5C cores - alongside a dedicated AI engine capable of up to 80 TOPS.

It reaches peak speeds of 5.1GHz and supports 16 threads, making it a capable option for users who need consistent multi-core performance.

AI performance in a small form factor

Housed in a frame not much larger than a drink coaster, the GT37 makes a strong case as one of the best in its class, particularly for those seeking workstation-level power in a small, affordable form factor.

Graphics are handled by the integrated Radeon 890M GPU based on the RDNA 3.5 architecture, featuring 16 compute units and clock speeds up to 2.9GHz. It offers solid performance for gaming and graphics-heavy applications.

For users needing more GPU power, the front-facing OCuLINK port supports external GPUs at up to 64Gbps, extending the GT37’s use cases from compact gaming to professional content creation.

The GT37 comes with 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM at 8000MHz in a dual-channel configuration. The memory is soldered to the board and paired with a 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD, upgradable to 4TB.

A dedicated fan cools the storage, helping to maintain performance during sustained workloads.

Despite its small size (4.41 x 2.36 x 4.41 inches), the device includes extensive I/O: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.3, dual 2.5G Ethernet ports, USB4, HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 2.1, USB-A 3.2 and 2.0 ports, and a 3.5mm audio jack.

It supports up to three displays, including 8K at 60Hz with HDR.

The mini PC ships with Windows 11 Pro but also supports Linux. A VESA mount is included for easy attachment to monitors or walls. The system is priced at $829 and includes a 12-month warranty.

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From updates to Android 16 to endless discussion of AI, here's what we expect to see at Google annual software event.

• Google’s new Simplify tool for iOS explains dense and confusing text on the web
• Simplify uses Gemini AI to translate the text into plain, readable language without leaving the page
• Users can highlight confusing content and tap the “Simplify” button to unravel the jargon

Reading an article on a technical or particularly complex subject sometimes feels like navigating a maze rather than following a narrative. Google's iOS app has a new solution if you come across a scientific paper or an article written by someone a little too fond of being obtuse. The new Simplify feature for Google's mobile app rewrites any jargon-filled internet text into language that doesn't require a specialty dictionary, and without leaving the app.

To use Simplify, you'll need to browse the web from the Google app. When you hit a wall of needlessly complicated text, you can highlight it, and a little Simplify button will appear. Tapping the button will rework that highlighted paragraph into something far more comprehensible to the average person.

Simplify is essentially a shortcut for Google's Gemini AI. Google Research designed a prompt-optimization process that asks Gemini to transform the text into something easier to understand behind the scenes, activating when you tap the Simplify button.

The Simplify button won't utterly change your life or redefine how you engage with content online, but it could cut down on the need for new tabs or at least remove the need to copy and paste opaque text into Gemini or ChatGPT every time you run up against a linguistic roadblock.

Simple AI

According to the developers of the Simplify tool, the AI translation not only made dense content easier to parse, but it also helped them remember what they read. It's of a piece with other AI tools rolled out by Google to streamline tedious or annoying bits of people's experiences online.

It matches neatly with features like Google Gemini widgets or the anticipated Power Up button for improving your prompts. The Simplify feature also falls under the AI enhancement of the browsing experience that Google has deployed (with occasional pratfalls), like the Search Generative Experience and AI Overviews for Search. Simplify feels more directly pitched to individuals, though, since you have to choose to use it.

For now, Simplify is iOS-only, and it's not going to be perfect every time. Like any AI tool, it might make a mistake or oversimplify its response and lose some of the nuance found in the original text. That's a tradeoff common to any translation, however. It may also be a tradeoff most users will be happy to make, especially when the alternative is drowning in multisyllabic nonsense about blockchain governance protocols.

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• Apple is reportedly looking to make AI tools the default search option for Safari
• Google is the current default search engine for Safari in a $20B-a-year deal
• Apple sees the AI as possibly more appealing to users for search purposes

Apple is flirting with the idea of making AI tools the default search option for Safari instead of Google. As first reported by Bloomberg, Apple’s services chief Eddy Cue revealed during testimony this week in the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust trial against Google that Apple is “actively looking at” bringing AI-powered search engines as a Google replacement.

Apple and Google currently have a mutually beneficial and lucrative deal where Google pays Apple around $20 billion a year to remain the default search engine across all Apple devices. That deal was part of the antitrust scrutiny, which led to the revelation of Apple's interest in alternatives.

Eddy Cue mentioned several major AI chatbot developers as potential new search partners for Apple, including OpenAI, Perplexity, Anthropic, and xAI. Cue told the court that searches on Safari actually declined last month for the first time in recent memory, and his theory is that people are starting to swap out standard search engines for AI tools. Instead of typing in “how does Wi-Fi work?” into a search bar, users are asking ChatGPT to explain it like they’re five.

Cue wasn’t exactly subtle in hinting that Apple thinks traditional search might be on the way out. "The only way you truly have true competition is when you have technology shifts," he said. “AI is a new technology shift, and it’s creating new opportunities for new entrants.”

Apple AI search

Apple’s already dipped its toes into AI search, linking Siri to ChatGPT and supposedly planning to do the same with Google Gemini. Cue also noted that Apple’s open to adding multiple AI search options directly into Safari, though no decision about a new default was mentioned.

AI search tools have some good points, but they come with glaring weaknesses. In particular, they can respond with incomplete, inaccurate, or downright hallucinatory information. Whether those issues are worth the advantages of AI search tools is debatable, but Apple clearly thinks it might be a worthwhile change to make. After all, if people are okay switching from Google to AI tools because they're easier, and despite their errors, that's the direction any company would want to follow.

And there's a reason Google has been willing to pay so much for its status on Apple devices. That user base is crucial to its search dominance. Just hinting that it might not be the case forever sent Google’s stock dropping nearly 9% after Cue’s testimony. Apple shares slipped too, but much more modestly.

None of this may matter if Apple decides it has a good thing with Google as a company and makes Gemini its default search tool with a similar deal. And while AI still can’t quite be trusted to write a college essay or navigate the DMV website, it's already reshaping how we expect to interact with information. That means the tools we use to access that information are going to evolve in a way they haven't since perhaps the widespread adoption of mobile versions of websites.

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• Backblaze B2 Overdrive delivers up to 1 Tbps for AI without sky-high pricing headaches
• Backblaze includes egress, read, and write in one price
• Designed for AI and HPC, B2 Overdrive redefines performance at petabyte scale

American cloud storage company Backblaze has launched a new B2 Overdrive tier designed to support AI, HPC, and other high-bandwidth workloads.

With prices starting at $15 per terabyte and sustained network throughput of up to 1Tbps, the service positions itself as an affordable option for businesses handling massive data volumes.

B2 Overdrive includes storage, read (Get), write (Put), and egress at a single price point. This contrasts with the tiered and often unpredictable pricing models used by competitors.

Takes aim at AWS with a bold alternative

The service is available immediately to customers with multi-petabyte workloads. It complements Backblaze’s existing B2 cloud storage tier, priced at $6 per terabyte per month.

That basic tier includes features like object lock immutability and a 99.9% uptime SLA and is often listed among the best cloud backup services for small businesses or individual users.

B2 Overdrive, by contrast, is aimed at organizations working at scale. According to Backblaze, it delivers 100% performance at roughly one-fifth the cost of AWS S3 and includes free egress up to three times the average monthly storage amount, with additional egress priced at $0.01 per GB.

The tier is built on disk-based infrastructure and connects directly to customer environments via secure private networking. It enables data to move freely to GPU clouds or high-performance compute clusters without incurring egress charges.

Backblaze says B2 Overdrive is intended for use cases such as AI and machine learning training, inference, large-scale analytics, media processing, and research computing.

Unlike most public cloud storage providers that emphasize latency, Backblaze focuses on sustained throughput.

Among major US providers - AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, and Oracle - Backblaze is the only one to publish throughput numbers directly.

Though not a general-purpose solution, B2 Overdrive may appeal to businesses seeking performance and pricing transparency.

While not commonly used for photo management, its affordability and expandable storage could make it a contender for archival photo storage as well.

“With B2 Overdrive, we’re challenging the industry’s assumption that organizations must pay colossal prices for colossal performance. We’ve engineered a solution that delivers the sustained high-throughput organizations need, without the egress fees and complex pricing tiers that are pervasive among legacy providers,” said Backblaze CEO Gleb Budman.

Via Blocksandfiles

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