If you were wondering whether itd be possible to ferment foods in space, the answer is apparently yes. In a study published in the journal iScience, researchers from the US and Denmark say they were able to make decent-tasting miso on the International Space Station but the flavor and smell was distinct from that of miso made on Earth. While it still scored well in the taste tests, with similar ratings to Earth miso in qualities like umami and saltiness, the ISS miso was found to taste nuttier and more roasted than the usual stuff.
The team suggests the findings reflect a sort of space terroir, playing off the term often used in relation to wine grapes to describe unique, location-specific flavor characteristics. For the study, the researchers sent a package containing the miso paste ingredients (cooked soybeans, rice koji and salt) to the ISS in March 2020, and let it ferment for 30 days. They also started miso batches back at home in Cambridge, MA and Copenhagen, Denmark, and monitored the environmental conditions of each setup. After a month, the space miso was sent back and analyzed in comparison to the Earth batches.
There are some features of the space environment in low earth orbit in particular microgravity and increased radiation that could have impacts on how microbes grow and metabolize and thus how fermentation works, co-lead author Joshua D. Evans of Technical University of Denmark said in a press release. We wanted to explore the effects of these conditions.
Not only were there differences in flavor, including the notable roasted nuttiness of the space miso, but also in the microbial composition of the misos. The team concluded that overall, the space miso is a miso, but says the findings suggest a specific fermentation environment in space.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/researchers-who-made-miso-in-space-say-it-tastes-good-but-different-215410333.html?src=rss
A Minecraft Movie has reportedly surpassed the record previously set by 2023s The Super Mario Bros. Movie for the biggest ever domestic box office opening of a video game adaptation. The new movie, which was released in theaters on Friday, raked in $157 million in the US in its opening weekend, according to The Hollywood Reporter. A Minecraft Movie is doing well internationally, too; THR reports that its earned $301M altogether in its global debut. The Super Mario Bros. Movie pulled in $146 million in its domestic opening and $377 million globally.
A Minecraft Movie stars Jack Black, Sebastian Hansen, Emma Myers, Jason Momoa, Danielle Brooks and Jennifer Coolidge. And while the trailers left us with pretty low expectations in the leadup to its release, Engadgets Devindra Hardawar found that its actually a pretty good kids movie that delivers a decent message about championing creativity in a world that wants to beat down free-thinking non-conformists. You can read the full review here.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/a-minecraft-movie-just-set-a-new-record-with-the-biggest-opening-ever-for-a-video-game-adaptation-in-the-us-192934482.html?src=rss
Lexar this week announced what it says is the worlds first 1TB microSD Express card in time for the arrival of the Nintendo Switch 2. Nintendo has said that the Switch 2 will only support microSD Express cards, not the regular microSD you may already have been using in your old Switch. There are three storage capacity options to choose from with Lexars new Play Pro microSDXC Express Card: 1TB ($199.99), 512GB ($99.99) and 256GB ($49.99). Buyers have already snatched them up fast, though, so youll have to wait until theyre back in stock if you want to grab one.
According to Lexar, the Play Pro microSDXC Express Card offers read speeds of up to 900MB/s and write speeds up to 600MB/s. GameStop also introduced a 1TB microSD Express card alongside a 512GB and a 256GB option, all of which are compatible with Nintendo Switch 2, but those wont ship until June when the new console arrives. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/lexar-made-a-1tb-microsd-express-card-that-works-with-nintendo-switch-2-175335976.html?src=rss
Meta has released the first two models from its multimodal Llama 4 suite: LLama 4 Scout and Llama 4 Maverick. Maverick is the workhorse of the two and excels at image and text understanding for general assistant and chat use cases, the company said in a blog post, while the smaller model Scout could tackle things like multi-document summarization, parsing extensive user activity for personalized tasks, and reasoning over vast codebases. The company also introduced Llama 4 Behemoth, an upcoming model it says is among the worlds smartest LLMs and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said well be hearing about a fourth model, LLama 4 Reasoning, in the next month.
Both Maverick and Scout are available to download now from the LLama website and Hugging Face, and theyve been added to Meta AI, including for WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram DMs.
Meta
Scout has 17 billion active parameters with 16 experts, Meta says. According to Zuckerberg, Its extremely fast, natively multimodal, and has an industry leading, nearly infinite 10 million token context length, and it is designed to run on a single GPU. Maverick on the other hand has 17 billion active parameters with 128 experts. The company says it beats competitors like GPT-4o and Gemini 2.0 on coding, reasoning, multilingual, long-context and image benchmarks, and stacks up against DeepSeek v3.1 on reasoning and coding.
Zuckerberg is already calling the upcoming Behemoth model, which is still training, the highest performing base model in the world, with 288 billion active parameters, according to the company. It may not be here yet, but its likely well be hearing a lot more about that and the Reasoning model soon; Metas big AI developer conference, LlamaCon, is just a few weeks away.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/meta-introduces-llama-4-with-two-new-models-available-now-and-two-more-on-the-way-214524295.html?src=rss
Amazon's new feature could make it easier to get into the latest release in a series, especially if it's been some time since you've read the previous books. The new Recaps feature is part of the latest software update for the Kindle, and the company compares it to "Previously on..." segments you can watch for TV shows. Amazon announced Recaps in a blog post, where it said that you can get access to it once you receive the software update over the air or after you download and install it from Amazon's website. Amazon didn't talk about the technology behind the feature in its post, but a spokesperson has confirmed to TechCrunch that the recaps will be AI generated.
Shortly after the feature rolled out, users talked about it on social media, wondering if Amazon is using generative AI to write series summaries. They expressed concerns about the use of generative AI, especially about the possibility of the technology hallucinating plot elements that aren't actually in the books. "We use technology, including GenAI and Amazon moderators, to create short recaps of books that accurately reflect book content," Amazon spokesperson Ale Iraheta told the publication. Iraheta assured TechCrunch that Amazon's recaps are accurate, but of course, use it at your own risk.
At the moment, the Recaps feature is available for best-selling English-language book series on all Kindle devices in the US. To know if your favorite series has one, look for the "View Recaps" button within the series page in your Kindle library. It will soon be available for the Kindle app on iOS, as well. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/amazon-will-use-ai-to-generate-recaps-for-book-series-on-the-kindle-170018503.html?src=rss
UK-based Jaguar Land Rover says its pausing shipments to the US after President Donald Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on passenger vehicles and other auto imports. The pause will be in effect this month, the Associated Press reports. While the full impact of the tariffs remains to be seen, analysts have said the move could ultimately drive up the cost of new and even used cars.
The USA is an important market for JLRs luxury brands, Jaguar Land Rover said in a statement to AP. As we work to address the new trading terms with our business partners, we are taking some short-term actions including a shipment pause in April, as we develop our mid- to longer-term plans.
Trumps tariffs go well beyond the auto industry, and were only seeing the beginning of how the US trading partners will respond. The president announced a 10 percent baseline tariff on all countries this week, and some will face even higher reciprocal tariffs. Among the immediate effects, Nintendo has delayed pre-orders of the new Switch 2 in the US.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/jaguar-land-rover-pauses-us-shipments-while-it-figures-out-a-plan-for-trumps-tariffs-172512506.html?src=rss
Jamie Siminoff, who founded Ring and started the company in his garage, is back at Amazon after leaving the company as its CEO in 2023. Siminoff joined Amazon when the e-commerce website acquired Ring in 2018, but he left in 2023 and founded another startup that he sold to lock maker Latch Inc. When he left Amazon two years ago, he said that invention was his true passion. Now, he's taking on the role as the vice president in charge of not just Ring, but also Amazon's smart home camera unit Blink, the company's in-garage delivery operations called Key and the Amazon Sidewalk low-bandwith, long-range shared network.
Siminoff is replacing Elizabeth Hamren, who took over his role two years ago. Hamren used to be the COO of Discord and was also an executive at Microsoft and at Meta. According to Bloomberg, she's still looking for new opportunities from inside and outside the company.
In a post welcoming him back posted on the Amazon website, Siminoff briefly and broadly talked about his plans for the divisions he's heading. He plans to focus on security, on making people feel their "homes are safe, even when theyre thousands of miles away." Siminoff also wants to make sure Amazon's experiences related to home security "work seamlessly across different types of devices." In addition, he talked about how he's going to explore the use of artificial intelligence in Amazon's products and services in the future. "The AI transformation happening right now is a once-in-a-generation opportunity, and I think were super well positioned with helpful and practical AI features like Smart Video Search," he said. "It's just the start here we're just scratching the surface of what we can do with AI and I look forward to digging into this with the team even more."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/ring-founder-jamie-siminoff-is-back-at-amazon-to-run-its-video-doorbell-unit-130009731.html?src=rss
The official launch of Apples iOS 18 brought with it some fresh ways to customize your iPhones home screen. Rather than leaving unwanted apps hanging around like a bad smell in places you dont want them, users can now take full control of app placement and make their home screen their own. Whether you're looking to add useful widgets, reorganize your apps or get rid of the ones you never use, customizing your iPhone home screen can help your device feel a little more unique. Heres a simple step-by-step guide to everything you can do to make your iOS 18 home screen look better and work the way you want.
How to add, edit and remove widgets
Widgets provide a convenient at-a-glance view of an apps data or functionality, giving you quick access to information and reducing the need to open the app itself. A well-placed widget allows you to check the weather, view your calendar or access music controls, all without opening an app, giving your thumb a well-earned rest. Everybody loves a good shortcut, and with iOS 18, you can add, edit, or remove widgets easily, letting you jump straight to the information that matters.
To add a widget:
Touch and hold an empty area on your home screen until the app icons start to jiggle.
Tap the Edit button in the top-left corner and select Add Widget.
Scroll or search for the widget you want, then tap it.
Swipe left or right to choose a size (some offer different layouts).
Tap Add Widget to place it on your screen.
Drag it to your preferred spot, then tap Done (top right).
To edit a widget:
Press and hold the widget you want to change.
Tap Edit Widget (if available). If Edit Widget isnt available, you can cycle through the icons for different placement and layout options.
Adjust settings like what calendar it shows, which location for the weather, etc. These options will be unique to each apps widget.
To remove a widget:
Press and hold the widget.
Tap Remove Widget, then confirm.
Rob Webb for Engadget
How to move apps and widgets on the home screen
Shuffling your home screen apps and widgets is also a cinch thanks to iOS 18s customization overhaul. Its a simple but useful way to personalize your iPhones home screen and declutter your wallpaper, so your loved ones' faces dont become buried underneath a wall of app icons.
Tap and hold on any app to reveal a menu.
Select Edit Home Screen, where you can move the apps across pages by dragging them to the edge of the screen.
Tap Done when you're finished.
You can also stack one app on top of another to automatically create a folder (more on that below).
How to customize apps and widgets on the home screen
Moving your most-used apps into prime position is all well and good, but if youre going for a particular aesthetic with your home screen, the default appearance of an app icon can sometimes spoil the overall look. Luckily, in iOS 18, you can exert more control over how your apps look, including the option to change app icon colors and how widgets are displayed.
To customize your app icon colors:
Press and hold on the home screen and tap Edit at the top.
Choose Customize to change background colors (like dark, light or a custom color) or apply a different layout.
However, bear in mind that not all app icons can change color. If these steps dont work for you, you may be left with the odd rogue app icon, sticking out like a sore thumb. In which case, you can hide the app icon from view, while still being able to access it easily from the app library.
How to lock or hide an app
Security is a top priority, particularly when it comes to your smartphone. You might have certain apps you want to keep private and for your eyes only. If so, youll be happy to know that there are two ways in which you can prevent unwanted eyes on your apps. You can hide or lock an app behind a passcode or Face ID; this prevents unauthorized access and keeps your apps in a Hidden folder. Similarly, you can remove apps entirely from the home screen, still allowing you (and others if they have access) to view them in your App Library.
To lock an app:
Long-press the icon of the app you want to lock on the home screen.
Select Require Face ID (or Touch ID or Passcode).
Confirm your selection by pressing Require Face ID (or Touch ID or Passcode).
To hide an app:
Long-press the icon of the app you want to lock on the home screen.
Select Require Face ID (or Touch ID or Passcode).
Confirm your selection by pressing Require Face ID (or Touch ID or Passcode)
Tap Hide and Require Face ID (or Touch ID or Passcode), then tap Hide App.
How to organize your apps in folders
Folders are a great way to declutter your home screen and keep similar apps grouped together. If youre the type of person who likes to keep things tidy and organized, storing your apps in folders is a good way to do it.
To create a folder:
Drag one app icon over another, and iOS 18 will automatically create a folder with both.
Tap the name to rename the folder (e.g., Social or Work).
Drag in additional apps if you want.
To remove a folder:
Move all the apps out of the folder, and it will disappear once its empty.
How to remove or delete apps
The struggle is real when it comes to app bloat, and sometimes a bit of a spring clean is needed. If your home screen needs a bit of freshening up, you can kick a seldom-used app to the curb, or at least kick it off your home screen.
To remove an app fom the home screen (without deleting it):
Tap and hold the app icon.
Tap Remove App.
Select Remove from Home Screen.
When you want to use that app, navigate to the App Library (swipe left past your last home page) or swipe down from the top of your home screen to search for it.
To delete an app completely:
Tap and hold the app icon.
Tap Remove App.
Select Delete App, then confirm.
To re-download a deleted app:
Open the App Store, search for the app and tap the download icon.
Rob Webb for Engadget
A few more tips to personalize your home screen space
Widgets Smart Stacks: Using this feature, you can combine multiple widgets into a stack you can swipe through. To do this, just drag one widget on top of another of the same size.
App Library shortcuts: If you want a cleaner home screen, you can remove most apps and rely on the App Library (swipe all the way left) or the search tool to launch what you need.
Focus mode customization: Each Focus mode can have its own custom home screen. This is a useful tool for separating your work life from your personal life.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/how-to-customize-your-iphones-home-screen-in-ios-18-120100872.html?src=rss
Mewgenics, the cat-breeding RPG that was originally announced as a follow-up to Super Meat Boy, is coming out in 2025, based on a new trailer shared by IGN and the game's updated Steam page.
A blend of a turned-based RPG and twisted cat simulator, Mewgenics started as the next project from Team Meat, the development duo made up of Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes. Team Meat teased Mewgenics throughout 2013, but ultimately put the game on hold in 2014 to focus on finishing Super Meat Boy Forever, a mobile sequel to Super Meat Boy.
When McMillen ultimately left Team Meat in 2018 to focus on supporting The Binding of Isaac, Mewgenics came with him, and the game has been slowly making its way to release since then. If the trailer is any indication, repeatable, turn-based battles have become a big part of Mewgenics, but McMillen's trademark gross-out animation style remains intact (as does all of the cat furniture).
If you're looking for more information about how the game has changed since it was announced over a decade ago, McMillen and co-developer Tyler Glaiel have kept up a relatively regular cadence of blog posts on Steam covering different aspects of the development process. We should also see a lot more of the game soon: In their latest update, Mewgenics' developers shared that IGN is publishing hands-on coverage of the game in May.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/the-creator-of-binding-of-isaac-will-release-a-new-game-mewgenics-this-year-211049653.html?src=rss
Early this year, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta would be ditching its long-running fact checking program, claiming that it has enabled too much censorship on the companys apps. Now, Meta has set an end date for fact-checking on Facebook, Instagram and Threads (at least for its US users).
By Monday afternoon, our fact-checking program in the US will be officially over, Metas recently elevated policy chief Joel Kaplan announced in a post on X. That means no new fact checks and no fact checkers.
Instead, Meta has been slowly ramping up Community Notes. Meta began allowing potential contributors to sign up in February. It began testing the system, which will initially be powered by the same algorithm as Community Notes on X, earlier this month. But the crowdsourced fact checks have yet to appear publicly on posts. It sounds like thats also about to change with the official end of Metas existing fact checking partners. The first Community Notes will start appearing gradually across Facebook, Threads & Instagram, with no penalties attached, Kaplan said.
Though Meta has said it wants to eventually end fact checking entirely, the company has said relatively little about its plans for Community Notes outside of the US. That may be because officials in other countries, like Brazil and the European Union, have already expressed concern about how the change could affect the flow of disinformation around the world.
Metas push to end fact checking in the US came early this year alongside several other policy changes that marked a notable rightward shift for the social network just as President Donals Trump took office. The company also ended corporate DEI programs, rolled back hate speech protections on its services and added a close Trump ally to its board.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-is-entering-its-post-truth-era-on-monday-202858791.html?src=rss
