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AI chatbots can be useful tools for learning about the world, but they aren't usually designed as educators and often are full of caveats regarding where their data comes from. Google has debuted a new AI tutor called Learn About to solve those issues. It's a personal tutor capable of adapting its teaching style in real time. Learn About isn't just a conversational AI chatbot; it combines visual aids and the ability to expand and simplify subjects as needed, like an interactive and intelligent textbook.

Learn About doesn't rely on the Gemini AI models employed by Google in most of its AI services. Instead, it uses the LearnLM model introduced at Google I/O this year. LearnLM has been trained specifically on educational and research-oriented data and is supposed to encourage users to think for themselves. That means the AI doesn't just give a quick answer but tries to impart the facts and the knowledge behind the straightforward answer, including diagrams and annotated text, along with suggested topics related to your initial query.

LearnLM also makes sure the common hallucinations and wrong information regurgitated by AI chatbots are less of an issue. You can ask a question, suggest a topic, or even upload images and let the AI run with whatever it can find about what's in the images. Learn About is currently available to a limited number of U.S. users, but expansion is likely coming soon.

Robotic education

(Image credit: Future)

As an experiment, I asked about building a humanoid robot. Learn About didn't just cite an encyclopedia on what that would entail. Instead, I got a whole list of necessary elements broken down with images, context boxes, and further reading. The 'get images' button at the bottom did exactly what it said it would, while the double-check with Google just seemed to confirm the information was accurate. The 'go deeper' button quickly led me down a path of technical details for machining an arm joint. Two paragraphs in, I was lost.

I had much more fun with the 'simplify' button because each time I tapped it, the AI would get more creative in being simple. First, it talked about building a robot like a toy, then it tried to explain how to build a robot like a gingerbread man, then a puppet show, and then a magic Lego man. After that, the AI apparently decided I didn't understand analogies and used very small words to explain robots without any window dressing. Still, the analogies and accompanying images and diagrams were like a window into textbooks for ever-younger children.

People don't always want a personal tutor. Sometimes, the trivia expert version of AI is preferable. But Gemini and LearnLM point out that Google wants people to continue thinking of it as the source of all knowledge, whether that's a simple yes or no answer about where a famous landmark is located or a full lecture on its history and place in local culture. Learn About helps Google set itself up as an information resource and a digital learning companion. And I have to give credit to Learn About for inspiring my upcoming gingerbread puppet show about robots.

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The Supreme Court dealt a major legal blow to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on Tuesday, refusing to move the Georgia election interference charges against him to federal court.

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Israel's Defense Minister was fired last week by Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu who said that trust had "eroded" between them. The now former defense minister met with families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza and gave his thoughts on what Israel can still achieve in Gaza. We hear what was said.

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If you're on T-Mobile – or an MvNO like Mint Mobile that uses its network – and experienced no service, dropped calls, or no connectivity on November 12, 2024, it likely wasn't just you.

Just a few weeks after a major Verizon outage, T-Mobile experienced a smaller outage in the Salt Lake City region of Utah. At the peak, reported outages for T-Mobile shot up to over 19,500 on Down Detector—an online tool used to track service outages from user reports—with many frustrated customers leaving comments on the site.

Similarly, impacted customers are taking to X (formerly Twitter) and Threads to express frustration and seek answers from T-Mobile about the lack of service in Utah. Unlike Verizon, which impacted customers nationwide, T-Mobile only hit a smaller region due to a "brief mechanical issue" at a facility in Salt Lake City.

Ahead, you can read our live reporting on the T-Mobile outage and see the carrier's full comment on the service disruption.

(Image credit: TechRadar)

Judging by social posts from impacted T-Mobile customers, this network outage is pretty widespread but also has some hotspots. More than a few folks have posted to Threads and X (formerly Twitter), calling out service issues in Utah, specifically Salt Lake City.

From Down Detector's interactive map, we can see that service disruptions are being reported in Utah as well as Los Angeles, Phoenix, Atlanta, and New York City.

Along with T-Mobile's core customers, this outage is impacting MvNOs – aka mobile virtual network operators – like Mint Mobile. These carriers use T-Mobile's network – or another major carrier like Verizon or AT&T – to provide service.

TechRadar's Editor-at-Large Lance Ulanoff noted this in a post to X (formerly Twitter) and Threads. At the same time, we're seeing Mint Mobile customers flag network issues.

Raise your hand if @TMobile (or one of its MVNOs like @Mintmobile ) is out for youNovember 12, 2024

While less than the surge of over 19,000 reported outages for T-Mobile, Down Detector is currently showing over 1,000 reported issues for Mint Mobile. In the comments on the site, many are reporting no or minimal service in Utah.

Along with various reports on social media and Down Detector reporting T-Mobile issues in Utah as a whole, CBS affiliate KUTV in St. George, Utah, reports that a 'major event' is impacting service for the carrier and CenturyLink customers.

T-Mobile reportedly confirmed the service outage, and KUTV wrote that "the event impacted four cell towers," but additional details are not yet available. There is also no estimate for service restoration, but judging from previous outages for AT&T and Verizon, it can take several hours to return to normal.

While T-Mobile has yet to comment publicly on the ongoing network issues, customers are attempting to get support on X via the @TMobileHelp account. It's currently being flooded with many messages and mostly canned, scripted responses asking the customers to "direct message" them.

Many of these are about issues in Utah, specifically Salt Lake City, with @TMobileHelp even trying to figure out why one customer is on WiFi calling versus cellular. That's a good thing in the event of a cellular outage, as with the feature enabled, you'll still be able to make calls on WiFi.

Hi, let's see what's causing you to have to be on Wi-Fi calling in Salt Lake City, Utah. Meet us in DM with your address. We'll review the coverage in your area right away. Thanks. ^ShannonRobinson https://t.co/8DIvLVByJjNovember 12, 2024

While reports on Down Detector did surge to over 19,000 for T-Mobile, reported outages for the wireless carrier are beginning to slow down. As of 3:23 PM ET, there were above 5,600 reported outages—a smaller sum, but still indicating a larger pool of issues than to be expected on a normal day.

The site's comments still point to service disruptions in South Salt Lake City, West Jordan, Ogden, and Sandy City Utah. Signaling that this state, along with the earlier report of four cell towers being impacted, is the main affected area.

(Image credit: Future)

Even with many reported outages and folks commenting on social media about issues with T-Mobile, others note that it is business as usual.

It's likely that if you have a newer iPhone or Android phone and are experiencing T-Mobile's outage, you might have noticed that your network bars in the top right corner have been replaced by the word "SOS" and an icon depicting a satellite. This means your device has no cellular connectivity, but if you need to reach emergency services or send a message, you can use the device's satellite connectivity to get through.

You can see our guide to using satellite messaging here, but there is a good chance you'll see this icon for the first time during a network outage.

(Image credit: Apple)

After a flurry of reported outages, reaching nearly 20,000 on Down Detector, it seems that T-Mobile's network is returning ... for some. Several commenters on Down Detector and social media platforms like Threads and X have noted that service is returning.

One customer, Kent J Barnes, wrote, "Back on line in Murray, UT Hope it lasts" on Down Detector, with others saying service is back in Salt Lake City. These reports of service returning come as reports on the site continue to drop, sitting at 1,848 as of 3:52PM ET.

(Image credit: Future) T-Mobile is back up

T-Mobile has responded to TechRadar and confirmed that the network issue is now resolved. The carrier has noted that it was not a "major outage" and only impacted customers in the Salt Lake City area.

Here is the full statement from T-Mobile: "A facility in the Salt Lake area had a brief mechanical issue that impacted connectivity for some customers in that market, but this is now resolved and service is restored. We apologize for the inconvenience."

It seems the culprit for the outage was a mechanical issue, but the good news is that the service is restored. If you're on T-Mobile, it can't hurt to restart your phone.

• Foxit PDF reader will now work natively on Snapdragon devices
• Workers can enjoy AI tool integration to boost productivity
• Schools and workplaces can benefit from enhanced Snapdragon performance

Foxit has unveils upgrades to help improve productivity for its users by introducing native support for PCs running on Snapdragon processors.

The move eliminates the need for emulation which can slow down performance and drain battery life, and allows Foxit's PDF Editor and Editor Pro with AI Assistant to run more efficiently.

The combination of Foxit's PDF and eSignature software with Snapdragon hardware should also help boost performance and streamline the way users manage and interact with PDF documents.

Foxit and Snapdragon

Foxit’s latest offerings also integrate AI tools, particularly ChatGPT, bringing a range of intelligent automation capabilities to users. Through AI-driven natural language processing, users can perform advanced tasks like document redaction, form filling, and annotation more intuitively and with less manual effort, simplifying repetitive tasks and improving accuracy.

In addition, Foxit also optimized its latest PDF tools to run natively on Snapdragon-powered devices, allowing them to deliver the same quality and performance as desktop computers.

Furthermore, the integration with Snapdragon opens up opportunities for users in sectors like education, where mobile-first workflows are becoming more common. Students and educators alike can benefit from a tool that is not only optimized for performance but also capable of handling complex document management tasks without draining device resources.

“Foxit’s commitment to native support on the Snapdragon platform enables us to deliver significant improvements, including faster rendering and processing of content, leading to greatly enhanced productivity and an unrivalled user experience," said Andrew Travis, Executive Vice President of Sales, at Foxit.

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• The latest draft of the UN Cybercrime Convention faces key vote
• The US is set to support the treaty
• Human rights advocates say the convention will make it easier for authoritarian regimes to expand surveillance

A new draft of the UN Cybercrime Convention is set to face a key vote, and the Biden administration is reportedly set to support the treaty, despite criticism from digital rights organizations and human rights campaigners.

The convention is the first piece of legally binding legislation from the UN regarding cybersecurity, and its supporters hope to use it to establish a global framework for states to use to investigate and prevent cybercrime.

However, not only does Cisco think the treaty falls short of sufficiently protecting basic human rights, but some campaigners have said this convention will actually make it easier for authoritarian regimes to abuse their power and expand policing and surveillance.

Extensive deliberation

US officials confirmed there had been consultations with allied states and reviewed hundreds of written submissions from non-government organizations, and ultimately ‘decided to remain with consensus’.

A contributing factor to the support from the US was the need to influence later amendments and updates to the treaty, which would be made easier by support from the early stages.

A group of Democratic senators recently wrote the treaty could “legitimize efforts by authoritarian countries” to censor and surveil internet users and political activists.

“While the executive branch’s efforts to steer this treaty in a less-harmful direction are commendable, more must be done to keep the convention from being used to justify such actions,” the senators said in a joint letter to the Secretary of State, Attorney General, and others.

A primary concern for digital rights groups is that the treaty doesn’t focus on crimes committed against computer systems, such as ransomware. Instead, the legislation focuses on digital communication systems, and could be used as an extension of police surveillance powers rather than protecting internet users and companies from cybercrime.

Via Politico

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• High-performance mini PC with AMD Ryzen 9 and RTX graphics
• Supports up to 64TB storage with lightning-fast 10,000 MB/s speeds
• Features triple monitor support, Wi-Fi 7, and dual 10Gb Ethernet

The Falco Prime A2 is a high-performance, budget-friendly mini PC currently seeking funding on Kickstarter.

Designed for content creators, media enthusiasts and gamers, this compact powerhouse is equipped with an AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX processor, optional NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 or 4070 mobile graphics, up to 64GB DDR5 RAM, and dual NVMe SSDs for the operating system.

The main selling point of the Falco Prime A2 is the 8x M.2 SSD bay that supports up to 64TB storage with read speeds up to 10,000 MB/s, allowing users to handle massive media libraries and high-speed data access. It also supports up to three monitors for a customizable multi-screen setup suited for different tasks, and network support comes in the form of Wi-Fi 7 and dual 10Gb Ethernet.

RAID

The mini PC offers two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports (one front, one back), two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C ports (one front, one back), and four USB 4 ports in the back for high-speed data transfer, along with a 3.5mm combo audio jack, and SD card and microSD slots for additional storage flexibility.

Users can configure RAID setups and choose between performance-boosting or redundancy options for the dual OS drives. The DDR5 RAM enhances data transfer rates and power efficiency, while a convection cooling system keeps the system running quietly and efficiently.

Early supporters on Kickstarter can secure the Super Early Bird price of $799 (a $500 discount from the $1,299 retail price), which includes the Ryzen 9 processor, RTX 4060M graphics, 32GB DDR5 RAM, and a 1TB SSD with the 8-slot SSD bay. Additional SSDs can be added to expand storage capacity further.

At the time of writing, the project has received $133,928 in pledges from 125 backers, well over the $5,000 goal, with 19 days to go. As with any crowdfunding project, backers should be aware that delays or changes to the final product can occur, and there's always a risk that the project may face challenges in production or fulfillment, so be warned.

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