Catégorie : Tech News

Apple has only just begun rolling out a much-hyped suite of AI features for its devices, and we are already seeing major problems. Case in point, the BBC has complained to Apple after an AI-powered notification summary rewrote a BBC headline to say the UHC CEO’s murderer Luigi Mangione had shot himself. Mangione did not shoot himself and remains in police custody.

Apple Intelligence includes a feature on iOS that tries to relieve users of fatigue by bundling and summarizing notifications coming in from individual apps. For instance, if a user receives multiple text messages from one person, instead of displaying them all in a long list, iOS will now try and summarize the push alerts into one concise notification.

It turns out—and this should not surprise anyone familiar with generative AI—the “intelligence” in Apple Intelligence belies the fact that the summaries are sometimes unfortunate or just plain wrong. Notification summaries were first introduced to iOS in version 18.1 which was released back in October; earlier this week, Apple added native integration with ChatGPT in Siri.

In an article, the BBC shared a screenshot of a notification summarizing three different stories that had been sent as push alerts. The notification reads: “Luigi Mangione shoots himself; Syrian mother hopes Assad pays the price; South Korea police raid Yoon Suk Yeol’s office.” The other summaries were correct, the BBC says.

The BBC has complained to Apple about the situation, which is embarrassing for the tech company but also risks damaging the reputation of news media if readers believe they are sending out misinformation. They have no control over how iOS decides to summarize their push alerts.

“BBC News is the most trusted news media in the world,” a BBC spokesperson said for the story. “It is essential to us that our audiences can trust any information or journalism published in our name and that includes notifications.” Apple declined to respond to the BBC’s questions about the snafu.

Artificial Intelligence has a lot of potential in many areas, but language models are perhaps one of the worst implementations. But there is a lot of corporate hope that the technology will become good enough that enterprises could rely on it for uses like customer support chat or searching through large collections of internal data. But it’s not there yet—in fact, enterprises using AI have said they still have to do lots of editing of the work it produces.

It feels somewhat uncharacteristic of Apple to deeply integrate such unreliable and unpredictable technology into its products. Apple has no control over ChatGPT’s outputs—the chatbot’s creator OpenAI can barely control the language models, and their behavior is constantly being tweaked. Summaries of short notifications should be the easiest thing for AI to do well, and Apple is flubbing even that.

At the very least, some of Apple Intelligence’s features demonstrate how AI could potentially have practical uses. Better photo editing and a focus mode that understands which notifications should be sent through are nice. But for a company associated with polished experiences, wrong notification summaries and a hallucinating ChatGPT could make iOS feel unpolished. It feels like they are rushing on the hype train in order to juice new iPhone sales—an iPhone 15 Pro or newer is required to use the features.

According to a report from Reuters, president-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is trying to kill a rule set by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that requires automakers to report crashes if advanced driver assistance technology or automated driving systems were in use within 30 seconds of the crash. The NHTSA issued the Standing General Order in 2021, stating that its goal is to gather data that could help it identify potential safety issues.

The data has been used in investigations into crashes involving six companies so far, including Tesla and GM’s Cruise (which is shutting down its robotaxi program as of this week). Tesla “despises” the reporting requirement and believes the data could be misleading to consumers, Reuters reports, citing sources close to Tesla executives. In a document seen by Reuters, the transition team in charge of making a 100-day strategy for automotive policy reportedly recommended that the incoming administration repeal the requirement, saying it calls for “excessive” data collection.

It’s unknown whether Elon Musk — who donated over $250 million to help Trump get elected and was chosen to lead the new “Department of Government Efficiency” alongside Vivek Ramaswamy — had any hand in the recommendation. Tesla has reported over 1,500 crashes, and accounted for 40 out of 45 fatal crashes reported to the NHTSA, Reuters reports. But, according to University of South Carolina law professor Bryant Walker Smith, who spoke to Reuters, Tesla has more cars on the road with advanced driver assistance technology and collects more real-time crash data than other companies, which could make for a disproportionate number of incidents reported.

A mattress seems like a simple purchase at first, but it’s a lot more complicated if you want to get the right mattress for your body type. Whether you like your mattress as soft as feathers or on the harder side, you need one that provides comfort and support.

If you’re a heavier person, you’ll be pleased to know the market is loaded with mattresses that offer extra support and robust features (supporting up to 500 pounds per person). Some examples include the Titan Plus and Titan Plus Luxe, the WinkBed Plus and the Big Fig mattress. The Saatva HD is another example, and it might be the nicest one in terms of quality and comfort. 

First impressions of the Saatva HD mattress

I was expecting to be impressed by the Saatva HD mattress prior to its arrival at our office and testing facility because of the pedigree of the Saatva brand. The Saatva Classic is one of CNET’s favorite mattresses, the Loom & Leaf mattress and the Saatva Solaire mattress are also great for different reasons and the Saatva HD did not disappoint. 

All of Saatva’s beds have a premium look, but in my opinion the HD mattress looks the best thanks to its organic cotton cover, golden embroidery and tall height profile. When we first started testing the mattress I found it similar to the Saatva Classic in terms of feel with subtle differences, which makes sense considering the HD is essentially designed to be a thicker, more supportive and durable version of the Classic. 

It also wasn’t quite as firm as I expected — often, beds that are designed for heavier people tend to skew firm, and while I would describe the HD as firmer than the average mattress, I was expecting something like the Titan Plus mattress which is among the firmest beds we’ve tested. 

Video: Saatva HD mattress Review

Watch me review the Saatva HD mattress in this video.

Saatva HD construction and feel

The Saatva HD mattress is very thick at 15.5 inches tall, which is among the thickest mattresses we’ve tested. Consequently, you might want to get deep pocket sheets to accommodate the mattress, and because of how thick the bed is and the materials it uses the Saatva HD is not compatible with adjustable bases which is something to keep in mind.

The bottommost layer is a 2-inch layer of dense, responsive support foam. You won’t really be feeling this layer at all, its job is to provide the coil layer above a stable foundation. The coil layer is about 6 inches thick and is the primary support layer of the Saatva HD. It’s constructed with extra thick gauge coils to improve the durability of the mattress.

Above the coil layer is a 2-inch layer of high-density responsive foam, which functions as a transition layer to help make sure you only feel the bounce and support from the coil layer, not the coils themselves. Above this layer is a 1.5-inch layer of memory foam for comfort and pressure relief, and above the memory foam is a 1.5-inch layer of zoned latex foam, and then the mattress is finished off with a 3-inch quilted European pillow top.

This bed has a lot going on under the cover and has a pretty strong resemblance to the Saatva Classic, with the key difference being the latex foam layer. On the Classic instead of a layer of latex foam it has another layer of coils. 

The construction gives the Saatva HD an accommodating, responsive pillow-top feel that I think pretty much everyone will find comfortable. Despite its layer of memory foam, it doesn’t have the sink-in, body-conforming quality that memory foam is known for. If you’re a memory foam lover, this feel might not appeal to you, but I have a hard time thinking people will find the Saatva HD uncomfortable.

Saatva HD firmness and sleeper types

Unlike the Saatva Classic which comes in three different firmness options, the Saatva HD is only available in one and in our testing we found it to be roughly a medium-firm on our scale, which makes it most ideal for back, stomach, and combination sleepers. People who spend a significant portion of the night on their side will likely want a mattress with a softer profile to provide more pressure relief. The brand agrees with our medium-firm assessment and lists it at the same level on its website. 

This firmness profile comes with a caveat though. Firmness is subjective and depends on a person’s body weight, with heavier people generally finding beds softer than lighter people. If you’re a heavier person, you may feel it to be closer to a medium than a medium-firm. This could make it more appropriate for side sleepers. 

I think it would be a nice addition to Saatva HD for there to be a firmer option for heavier sleepers who want very little give in their mattress. For now, though, there’s only one firmness profile for this mattress. 

Saatva HD mattress performance

Edge support

The edge support of a mattress refers to how well the perimeter of the bed holds up under pressure. If the edge compresses too much, you can feel like you are going to roll off the mattress, which usually leads to poor sleep.

I thought the edge support on the Saatva HD was great. I didn’t observe any roll-off sensation, and looking back at the construction of this mattress, there is dense foam reinforcement of the outer perimeter specifically to improve the edge support. 

Motion isolation

If you find yourself waking up in the middle of the night because your partner tosses and turns a lot, having a mattress that does a good job of isolating cross-mattress motion is important. 

The Saatva HD is about average in this category. The support layer has some design elements to improve the motion isolation; however it can’t really compete with a foam mattress in this category. 

However, if you are a really light sleeper who wakes up easily if your partner tosses and turns, it could happen more on this bed than others, but I don’t see it being a dealbreaker for most.

Temperature regulation

The Saatva HD mattress should sleep temperature neutral thanks to its breathable layers like the coils, latex foam and organic cotton used in the pillow-top. It doesn’t have any active cooling features like on the Brooklyn Bedding Aurora or Tempur-Pedic Pro Breeze that are cool to the touch. 

There are no red flags for sleeping hot on the Saatva HD, although in a recent 30-night home test of the Saatva Classic a member of our team did warm up a bit. 

Saatva HD pricing

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Size	Measurements (inches)	Price
Twin	38×74 inches	$1,995
Twin XL	38×80 inches	$2,195
Full	54×75 inches	$2,995
Queen	60×80 inches	$3,295
King	76×80 inches	$3,945
Cal king	72×84 inches	$3,945

There is no getting around the fact that the Saatva HD is an expensive mattress. It is significantly more expensive than the base model Saatva Classic, which is $2,095 for a queen size before discounts. The Saatva HD is also regularly discounted, which will lower the price a bit, but it is still a bed you need a sizable budget to consider. 

Make sure to check out our mattress deals page for the latest pricing and discounts on the Saatva HD or any other bed you might be interested in.

Saatva HD mattress policies

Free shipping (white glove delivery)

Unlike most online mattresses, which are rolled up and packaged tightly in plastic and then shipped to you in a large box, Saatva ships all of its beds fully expanded. You also get in-home setup and removal of your old mattress (if you choose). This is often called « white glove delivery. »

This can be especially nice if you don’t want to unpack your own mattress — that isn’t too difficult, but if you struggle to lift things, it can be a hassle. The bigger hassle is getting rid of your old bed, as it can cost a bit of money to dispose of a mattress. With any mattress from Saatva, you won’t have to deal with it.

365-night trial 

All Saatva mattresses come with an extra-long trial period of 365 nights in comparison to the usual standard of 100 nights. So you have quite a while to really test it out and see if you like it. 

Keep in mind that it can take a month or longer for your body to adjust to a new mattress, no matter how well-suited it is to your sleeping preferences. The trial period begins the day the mattress is delivered, not when you actually start sleeping on it.

Return policy

At any point after the first 30 nights post-delivery you decide the Saatva HD mattress isn’t for you for any reason, you can return it and get a refund. You just contact the company, and it will coordinate with a third party to pick up the mattress for you and then the bed is usually donated. 

There is a $99 fee to return any mattress from Saatva. It used to be one of the only brands that has a return fee but more and more online brands now have a similar fee.

Warranty

All Saatva mattresses are backed by a Lifetime warranty, which is above and beyond the usual online mattress standard of 10 years.

Like pretty much any warranty that lasts longer than 10 years, this warranty is tiered and offers more protection in the first 10 years in comparison to the years after but the Saatva HD mattress will likely remain durable over the long haul.

Final verdict

The Saatva HD is a high-quality mattress with premium materials and a design that will ensure long-term durability for heavier bodies. You don’t necessarily need to be a heavier person to be interested in the Saatva HD, though, but if you are not the type of person this bed is designed for, I don’t see why you’d buy this instead of the Saatva Classic. The Classic is more affordable, has more firmness options and is also durable and supportive. The HD does have a latex foam layer, which I could see some people gravitating towards, but with the extra cost and inability to work with an adjustable base, the Saatva HD is more of a niche choice. 

For heavier people looking for a luxurious mattress that’s specifically designed to be super supportive and durable, the Saatva HD is one of the best beds on the market. The only potential downsides is firmness and price but it should work for the majority of people and it’s also very comfortable.

You might like the Saatva HD mattress if

• You’re a heavier person looking for a durable and supportive bed
• You want a neutral, accommodating mattress feel
• You’re sharing this mattress and need excellent support
• You’re seeking a firmer mattress

You might not like the Saatva HD mattress if

• You’re shopping on a tight budget
• You use or want to use an adjustable base
• You want something plush

Other mattresses from Saatva

Saatva Classic: This is one of our all-time favorite mattresses, and we put it on many of our best lists for its comfort, versatility and price. It comes in three different firmness levels that work for most sleepers. It uses two layers of coils, it’s plenty supportive and it has an accommodating and traditional pillow-top feel. There are just a lot of things to like about the Saatva Classic, and it is more affordable than the Saatva HD.

Loom & Leaf: This is the premium memory foam mattress option from Saatva. It doesn’t feature any coils and instead uses dense foam for support and two different layers of memory as the primary comfort layers. The luxurious quilted cover is filled with a more responsive type of foam, so it has more of a responsive memory foam feel overall. It also comes in two different firmness levels that lean toward the firm end of the spectrum.

Saatva Rx: The Saatva Rx is a relatively new bed from Saatva, which is designed to provide targeted support for sleepers with chronic pain. It has two layers of coils, foam-tipped pocketed coils and micro coils to achieve that level of support. It also has a nice, comfy pillow-top feel. It only comes in one firmness level and it’s a bit softer than a medium to make it a nice option for side sleepers looking for joint pressure relief.

How does the Saatva Soliare mattress compare to similar mattresses?

Saatva HD vs. WinkBed Plus

The WinkBed Plus is essentially WinkBed’s answer to the Saatva HD, meaning it’s a variant of its flagship mattress designed for heavier people. The WinkBed Plus is technically a different firmness option from the regular WinkBed mattress, but we consider it a different bed altogether because it’s more expensive and has a different construction. Like the Saatva HD, the WinkBed Plus has a layer of latex foam for added bounce and durability and has the same type of responsive pillow-top feel and a similar medium-firm profile — all while also being more affordable.

Saatva HD vs. Titan Plus

The Titan Plus mattress is another popular bed that’s designed for heavier individuals. Like the Saatva HD, it uses extra-thick gauge coils for additional support and durability. It has fewer comfort layers than the Saatva HD, and instead of having a pillow-top feel, it has more of a responsive, firm foam feel that I don’t think is universally comfortable. There’s also a Titan Plus Luxe model that adds some memory foam, which changes up the feel. 

The biggest point in favor of the Titan Plus in comparison to the Saatva HD is that it’s much more affordable. It’s $1,249 for a queen size and has an optional cooling cover. 

Saatva HD vs. Big Fig

Big Fig is another mattress specifically designed for heavier people — « Big Fig » is short for « Bigger Figure. » It also has extra-thick gauge coils and has a feel more similar to the Titan Plus I just covered than the pillow-top feel of the Saatva HD. It has a cover that is somewhat cool to the touch, and Big Fig says it can support up to 1,100 pounds throughout the lifespan of the mattress. Big Fig is also more affordable than the Saatva HD, $1,899 for a queen and it has a firmer profile.

Strands is the NYT’s latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it’s great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc’s Wordle today page for the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.

NYT Strands today (game #287) – hint #1 – today’s theme

What is the theme of today’s NYT Strands?

• Today’s NYT Strands theme is… Moonlighting

NYT Strands today (game #287) – hint #2 – clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

• QUEST
• TEAR
• BEST
• RESCUE
• TAPE
• NEAR

NYT Strands today (game #287) – hint #3 – spangram

What is a hint for today’s spangram?

• Satellite stages

NYT Strands today (game #287) – hint #4 – spangram position

What are two sides of the board that today’s spangram touches?

First side: left, 5th row

Last side: right, 5th row

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #287) – the answers

The answers to today’s Strands, game #287, are…

• FULL
• WANING
• WAXING
• GIBBOUS
• QUARTER
• CRESCENT
• SPANGRAM: LUNAR PHASE

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• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

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Many wonderful songs mention the moon – Moon River, Fly Me to the Moon, Moondance, Bad Moon Rising – but few mention a particular LUNAR PHASE, today’s Spangram.

A couple of exceptions…

The fabulous Whole of the Moon by The Waterboys, is a tribute to someone with greater otherworldly talent than the singer, Mike Scott. “I sighed, you swooned, » he croons. « I saw the crescent / You saw the whole of the Moon”.

Another favorite is Easy from Now On by Emmylou Harris, which describes running away from a bad relationship and finding yourself beneath a “Quarter moon in a ten-cent town”.

Finally, a tune about the phase of the moon when it appears bulging outward but is not yet full: the off-kilter lament Gibbous Moon by Momus: « This world is lugubrious/ Aghast beneath a gibbous moon/ Waxing and waning with the death of all feeling/ But we will be free soon.”

Thank you, Strands, for this little Spotify rabbit hole.

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

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Yesterday’s NYT Strands answers (Saturday, 14 December, game #286)

• FIRE 
• PASSION
• DRIVE 
• DEVOTION
• INTENSITY
• PURPOSE
• SPANGRAM: GO GETTER

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What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT’s new word game, following Wordle and Connections. It’s now out of beta so is a fully fledged member of the NYT’s games stable and can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

I’ve got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you’re struggling to beat it each day.

More than two dozen members of Congress have been the victims of sexually explicit deepfakes — and an overwhelming majority of those impacted are women, according to a new study that spotlights the stark gender disparity in this technology and the evolving risks for women’s participation in politics and other forms of civic engagement.

The American Sunlight Project (ASP), a think tank that researches disinformation and advocates for policies that promote democracy, released findings on Wednesday that identified more than 35,000 mentions of nonconsensual intimate imagery (NCII) depicting 26 members of Congress — 25 women and one man — that were found recently on deepfake websites. Most of the imagery was quickly removed as researchers shared their findings with impacted members of Congress.

“We need to kind of reckon with this new environment and the fact that the internet has opened up so many of these harms that are disproportionately targeting women and marginalized communities,” said Nina Jankowicz, an online disinformation and harassment expert who founded The American Sunlight Project and is an author on the study.

Nonconsensual intimate imagery, also known colloquially as deepfake porn though advocates prefer the former, can be created through generative AI or by overlaying headshots onto media of adult performers. There is currently limited policy to restrict its creation and spread.

ASP shared the first-of-its-kind findings exclusively with The 19th. The group collected data in part by developing a custom search engine to find members of the 118th Congress by first and last name, and abbreviations or nicknames, on 11 well-known deepfake sites. Neither party affiliation nor geographic location had an impact on the likelihood of being targeted for abuse, though younger members were more likely to be victimized. The largest factor was gender, with women members of Congress being 70 times more likely than men to be targeted.

ASP did not release the names of the lawmakers who were depicted in the imagery, in order to avoid encouraging searches. They did contact the offices of everyone impacted to alert them and offer resources on online harms and mental health support. Authors of the study note that in the immediate aftermath, imagery targeting most of the members was entirely or almost entirely removed from the sites — a fact they’re unable to explain. Researchers have noted that such removals do not prevent material from being shared or uploaded again. In some cases involving lawmakers, search result pages remained indexed on Google despite the content being largely or entirely removed.

“The removal may be coincidental. Regardless of what exactly led to removal of this content — whether ‘cease and desist’ letters, claims of copyright infringement, or other contact with the sites hosting deepfake abuse — it highlights a large disparity of privilege,” according to the study. “People, particularly women, who lack the resources afforded to Members of Congress, would be highly unlikely to achieve this rapid response from the creators and distributors of AI-generated NCII if they initiated a takedown request themselves.”

According to the study’s initial findings, nearly 16 percent of all the women who currently serve in Congress — or about 1 in 6 congresswomen — are the victims of AI-generated nonconsensual intimate imagery.

Jankowicz has been the target of online harassment and threats for her domestic and international work dismantling disinformation. She has also spoken publicly about being the victim of deepfake abuse — a fact she found out through a Google Alert in 2023.

“You can be made to appear in these compromised, intimate situations without your consent, and those videos, even if you were to say, pursue a copyright claim against the original poster, — as in my case — they proliferate around the internet without your control and without some sort of consequence for the people who are amplifying or creating deepfake porn,” she said. “That continues to be a risk for anybody who is in the public eye, who is participating in public discourse, but in particular for women and for women of color.”

Image-based sexual abuse can have devastating mental health effects on victims, who include everyday people who are not involved in politics — including children. In the past year, there have been reports of high school girls being targeted for image-based sexual abuse in states like California, New Jersey and Pennslyvania. School officials have had varying degrees of response, though the FBI has also issued a new warning that sharing such imagery of minors is illegal.

The full impact of deepfakes on society is still coming into focus, but research already shows that 41 percent of women between the ages of 18 and 29 self-censor to avoid online harassment.

“That is a hugely powerful threat to democracy and free speech, if we have almost half of the population silencing themselves because they’re scared of the harassment they could experience,” said Sophie Maddocks, research director at the Center for Media at Risk at the University of Pennsylvania.

There is no federal law that establishes criminal or civil penalties for someone who generates and distributes AI-generated nonconsensual intimate imagery. About a dozen states have enacted laws in recent years, though most include civil penalties, not criminal ones.

AI-generated nonconsensual intimate imagery also opens up threats to national security by creating conditions for blackmail and geopolitical concessions. That could have ripple effects on policymakers irrespective of whether they’re directly the target of the imagery.

“My hope here is that the members are pushed into action when they recognize not only that it’s affecting American women, but it’s affecting them,” Jankowicz said. “It’s affecting their own colleagues. And this is happening simply because they are in the public eye.”

Image-based sexual abuse is a unique risk for women running for office. Susanna Gibson narrowly lost her competitive legislative race after a Republican operative shared nonconsensual recordings of sexually explicit livestreams featuring the Virginia Democrat and her husband with The Washington Post. In the months after her loss, Gibson told The 19th she heard from young women discouraged from running for office out of fear of intimate images being used to harass them. Gibson has since started a nonprofit dedicated to fighting image-based sexual abuse and an accompanying political action committee to support women candidates against violations of intimate privacy.

Maddocks has studied how women who speak out in public are more likely to experience digital sexual violence.

“We have this much longer, ‘women should be seen and not heard’ pattern that makes me think about Mary Beard’s writing and research on this idea that womanhood is antithetical to public speech. So when women speak publicly, it’s almost like, ‘OK. Time to shame them. Time to strip them. Time to get them back in the house. Time to shame them into silence.’ And that silencing and that shaming motivation … we have to understand that in order to understand how this harm is manifesting as it relates to congresswomen.”

ASP is encouraging Congress to pass federal legislation. The Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits Act of 2024, also known as the DEFIANCE Act, would allow people to sue anyone who creates, shares or receives such imagery. The Take It Down Act would include criminal liability for such activity and require tech companies to take down deepfakes. Both bills have passed the Senate with bipartisan support, but have to navigate concerns around free speech and harm definitions, which are typical hurdles to tech policy, in the House.

“It would be a dereliction of duty for Congress to let this session lapse without passing at least one of these bills,” Jankowicz said “It is one of the ways that the harm of artificial intelligence is actually being felt by real Americans right now. It’s not a future harm. It’s not something that we have to imagine.”

In the absence of congressional action, the White House has collaborated with the private sector to conceive creative solutions to curb image-based sexual abuse. But critics aren’t optimistic about Big Tech’s ability to regulate itself, given the history of harm caused by its platforms.

“It is so easy for perpetrators to create this content, and the signal is not just to the individual woman being targeted,” Jankowicz said. “It’s to women everywhere, saying, ‘If you take this step, if you raise your voice, this is a consequence that you might have to deal with.’”

If you have been a victim of image-based sexual abuse, the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative maintains a list of legal resources.

This article was originally published on The Markup and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

We may see the next HDMI standard, HDMI 2.2, in only a matter of weeks. According to an email from the HDMI Forum sent around to press including Engadget this weekend, a new HDMI specification will be announced on Monday, January 6 in Las Vegas ahead of the official start to . The details at this point are pretty scant — all we’re told is that the new spec “enables a wide range of higher resolutions and refresh rates and will be supported with a new HDMI Cable.”

It’s been seven years since the introduction of HDMI 2.1. It was most recently updated to version 2.1b in 2023, to support bandwidths of up to 48Gbps and resolutions up to 10K. The new specification with the next gen HDMI technology will bring higher bandwidth, according to the email. That’s about all we know now, but we’ll have a team on the ground at CES keeping you up to speed on this and all the other announcements as they come.

With the right elevation, sleeping on your back relieves heartburn and acid reflux and reduce the risk of wrinkles. It’s great for your spine and, with the right pillow, can offer great support through the night for your head and neck.

Read more: 50 Unique Gifts for People Who Have Everything

For back sleepers, the perfect pillow strikes an ideal balance between height and firmness. You need a supportive pillow that ensures your neck and spine are properly aligned. I’ve tried out a bunch of pillows and put together a list of the best ones for back sleepers. A lot of my top picks are on sale right now, so it’s a great time to upgrade your sleep.

The best overall pillow for back sleepers

The best overall pillow for back sleepers is the Coop Eden Cool Plus Pillow. This pillow is adjustable (meaning you can add and remove the filling to your liking), and it’s made of high-quality, shredded memory foam that’s CertiPUR-US and Greenguard Gold Certified. It also keeps your neck and spine supported and aligned. Another perk of this pillow: It’s cool to the touch and great for hot sleepers. It even made our list of the best cooling pillows.  

How we tested the best pillow for back sleepers

During my testing, I considered price, materials, feel, firmness, height and size. When I tried each pillow, I checked to see if my neck and spine were aligned to make sure the pillow was supportive enough for back sleepers.   

I’m a combination sleeper, meaning I often switch to sleeping on my side or my stomach. Although I’ve tested more than 25 pillows (and another 10 for this article), I thought it would be best to consult a more consistent back sleeper for a second opinion. My boyfriend, who’s a strict back sleeper, helped me test and pick these pillows. We both spent a few nights sleeping and lounging on them (my dog included). The pillows that made this list are truly the best of the best for back sleepers. 

Best pillow for back sleepers

Other pillows I tested for back sleepers

Although these pillows didn’t make my list, some have features worth noting. Here are my honorable mentions.

Best pillows for back sleepers compared

	Price	Size(s)	Firmness	Materials	Machine washable?	Hypoallergenic?	Trial period
Coop Eden Cool Plus Pillow	$139	Queen, king	Adjustable	Shredded memory foam	Cover only	Yes	100 nights
Nolah Squishy Pillow	$119	Two queens	Adjustable	Shredded foam	Cover only	Not specified	30 days
Brooklyn Bedding Luxury Memory Foam Pillow	$129	Queen, king	Medium	Memory foam	Cover only	Yes	30 days
Bear Pillow	$125	Standard, king	Medium	Latex and memory « hybrid » foam	No	Yes	30 nights
Purple Harmony Pillow	$199	Standard, king	Medium	Latex	Cover only	Yes	100 nights
Avocado Green Pillow	$109	Standard, queen and king	Medium	Shredded latex and cotton	Cover only	Yes	100 days
Brooklinen Down Pillow	$109	Standard, king	Medium	Down clusters and feathers	No	Not specified	365 days
Casper Original Pillow	$65	Standard, king	Medium	Polyester fiber, down alternative	Yes	Not specified	30 nights
Helix Wedge Pillow	$109	Standard	Medium-firm	Gel memory foam and poly foam	Cover only	Yes	100 nights

Best pillows for back sleepers FAQ

Recent reports have revealed that high-cost southern border surveillance technology is failing to deliver on its purpose.

A leaked memo obtained by NBC News reveals that nearly one-third of the cameras on the border’s primary surveillance towers are currently offline.

The report reveals that out of the 500 cameras installed on surveillance towers along the border between the U.S. and Mexico, about 150 are currently inactive.

Overlapping agencies and fragmented responsibilities

One of the core problems with the surveillance towers lies in the complicated web of federal oversight. While the Border Patrol depends on these systems to monitor remote areas, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is responsible for maintaining the towers. This division of responsibility creates delays in repairs and maintenance, undermining the network’s effectiveness.

The Remote Video Surveillance System, where many of these cameras are installed, is only one part of the broader surveillance network. However, the entire system has been hampered by poor coordination, frequent project cancellations, and incompatible technologies developed by different vendors.

The history of surveillance technology at the border is marked by delays, budget overruns, and cancelled programs. One prominent example is the Secure Border Initiative Network (SBInet), which aimed to deploy towers across the U.S.-Mexico border. By 2010, after spending $1 billion, only 15 towers had been installed along a 53-mile stretch of Arizona’s border, covering just a fraction of the 387-mile expanse. The program was eventually scrapped in 2011 following internal reviews that criticized its performance and high costs.

There have been attempts to replace SBInet with new initiatives, such as the Arizona Border Surveillance Technology Plan and the Southwest Border Technology Plan. However, they are also struggling.

Over the past two decades, the U.S. government has spent nearly $6 billion on surveillance towers and made efforts to consolidate the various systems into the Integrated Surveillance Towers network. However, there are challenges due to incompatible components and outdated technology.

A recurring issue with the surveillance towers is the absence of meaningful performance metrics to evaluate their effectiveness. In a 2017 report, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) criticized the Border Patrol for failing to assess whether these technologies were improving security. The GAO urged the agency to develop performance metrics, but recent assessments suggest that little progress has been made.

In February 2023, the GAO noted that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials expect operational shortfalls of up to 36% by 2025, putting more towers at risk of becoming non-functional. Without clear benchmarks for success, it remains difficult to determine how much these expensive surveillance systems contribute to national security efforts.

The outages have frustrated Border Patrol agents, who rely on the cameras to monitor vast, remote regions. There are legitimate concerns about officer safety and border security due to non-operational towers.

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Y’know, it wasn’t that long ago Marvel had variant covers featuring Godzilla going up against the likes of the Avengers and Spider-Man. Toho’s big lizard will duke it out with anyone these days, no matter how big they are. So you won’t be surprised those covers were a prelude to him actually coming to ruin the days of Marvel’s A-list superheroes.

On Thursday, the Hollywood Reporter unveiled Godzilla vs. Marvel, the publisher’s first crossover with the character since 1977’s Godzilla, King of the Monsters. This new event is a series of one-shots wherein the King will face off against (or team up with) various Marvel heroes across the decades. First up is Ryan North and John Romita Jr.’s tale of a meeting with the Fantastic Four, who fight King Ghidorah after he becomes Galactus’ new Herald. While the Four face the new cosmic dragon, Godzilla and the Silver Surfer must team up to save the planet.

According to Marvel EiC C.B. Cebulski, the company initially talked with Toho about reprinting those old comics, but talks eventually made it clear “both of our teams were excited to do more together. These crossovers started coming together, in direct collaboration with Toho, and we felt the perfect time for them was for Godzilla’s 70th anniversary.” As Marvel’s comics/franchise president Dan Buckley noted, Godzilla’s become pretty popular lately thanks to Godzilla Minus One and the American-made MonsterVerse movies, so Marvel couldn’t not get in on that—and should this be a hit, Cebulski said Marvel would be more than happy to team with Toho on more “exciting projects.”

“Kaiju—and specifically Godzilla—are important parts of Marvel’s comic history, so we knew we wanted to explore something with their teams,” said Buckley. “It’s part of our current cultural zeitgeist and a perfect example of the fun that the comics industry can bring. We’re focused on the storytelling first and foremost, but fun opportunities for crossovers like this give both of our fans an entertaining escape that they won’t want to miss.”

Godzilla vs. Fantastic Four kicks things off in March 2025. Future issues and their creators will be revealed at a later date.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

The holiday season has barely begun, but some of us are already getting ready for CES 2025. Shortly after New Year’s Day, many from the Engadget team will be packing our bags to fly to Las Vegas, where we’ll be covering tech’s biggest annual conference. As usual, our inboxes are already flooded with pitches from companies that are planning to be there, and our calendars are filling up with appointments for briefings and demos.

Based on our experience, as well as observation of recent industry trends, it’s fairly easy to make educated predictions about what we might see in January. Over the years, the focus of the conference has spanned areas like TVs, cars, smart home products and personal health, with a smattering of laptops and accessories thrown in. At CES 2025, we expect to see AI get even more pervasive in all areas of the show floor. But we are also likely to get the usual slew of new processors and subsequent laptops, as well as all manner of wearables, trackers, bathroom appliances and massage chairs. Oh, the massage chairs.

If you’re already looking ahead to 2025 and are studiously researching what might be coming in January, here’s a taste of what our team expects to see at the show.

New video cards from AMD and NVIDIA

There’s no doubt 2025 is going to be a momentous year for PC gamers. NVIDIA is expected to debut its long-awaited RTX 5000 video cards at CES, while AMD CEO Lisa Su has confirmed we’ll see next-generation RDNA 4 GPUs early next year. Of the two companies, AMD could use the upgrade more. Its last batch of Radeon 7000 cards were decent mid-range performers, but they lagged far behind NVIDIA’s hardware when it came to ray tracing, and AMD’s FSR 3 upscaling also couldn’t compete with NVIDIA’s AI-powered DLSS 3.

« In addition to a strong increase in gaming performance, RDNA 4 delivers significantly higher ray-tracing performance and adds new AI capabilities,” AMD CEO Lisa Su said in an October earnings call.

As for NVIDIA’s new hardware, a rumor from the leaker OneRaichu (via DigitalTrends) suggested that the RTX 5090 could be up to 70 percent faster than the RTX 4090. (That’s a GPU that I previously described as having “unholy power.”) They also note that other “high level” cards could see 30 to 40 percent performance bumps. Those gains might be enough to tempt wealthy RTX 4090 owners to upgrade, but RTX 4070 and 4080 owners might want to skip this generation. For NVIDIA holdouts with RTX 3000 and earlier GPUs, though, next year may be the perfect time to upgrade. — Devindra Hardawar, senior reporter

AI PCs round 2

Last year, I predicted that AI PCs would dominate CES, and that mostly turned out to be true. As 2024 rolled on, we saw even more powerful NPUs in chips from Intel, AMD and Qualcomm. Microsoft also doubled down on AI PCs with its Copilot+ initiative, which gave a big marketing push for artificial intelligence features and premium specifications (like having at least 16GB of RAM).

Expect more of the same going into CES 2025, alongside even more AI being stuffed into every category of product imaginable. This year, in particular, PC makers are likely to gear up to take advantage of Windows 10 support ending next year. Instead of just upgrading your old computer to Windows 11, the likes of Dell and HP would rather you buy a whole new AI PC with the new OS pre-installed.

While 2024 was a year of endless AI PC hype, 2025 might end up being a year of reckoning. Microsoft’s long-delayed Recall feature is slowly trickling out to more users, but it’s already showing some glaring security holes, like failing to scrub social security and credit card numbers from screenshots. We’ve also been mostly underwhelmed with Apple Intelligence’s image generation capabilities. PC makers have been eager to talk up the potential of AI-powered features until now, but in 2025 they’ll have to actually prove they can live up to their fantastical claims. — D.H.

Earbuds that follow Apple’s lead on hearing health

I’m fully aware not every audio company has the ability to build out a clinical-grade hearing test and hearing aid features in their apps. However, Apple’s recent update for the AirPods Pro 2 should inspire the competition to offer some form of hearing health tools on their flagship products. Jabra was probably the best equipped to do this since parent company GN has extensive hearing aid experience. Sadly, the company announced earlier this year that it wouldn’t make earbuds anymore.

Samsung and Google could probably integrate something like what Apple made for the AirPods, given both companies’ existing health platforms. If they did, those announcements are unlikely to be made at CES, as both companies prefer to host their own standalone hardware events throughout the year.

That leaves Sennheiser as the biggest audio company that consistently launches earbuds and headphones at CES. Last year, it showcased multiple new models, including one with heart-rate tracking for workouts. Plus, it already offers hearing assistance with dedicated devices like the true wireless Conversation Clear Plus. Those earbuds are more hearing focused than for general content consumption, so it would be great to see Sennheiser bring some features from that product to its flagship Momentum line of earbuds. Perhaps a Momentum True Wireless 4 Pro or Plus is in the cards, but the current model is just nine months old.

Of course, there’s plenty of room for other companies to innovate here, and there will be no shortage of new earbuds in Vegas next month. We also tend to see a ton of assistive devices and technology launch at CES, from major accessibility companies like OrCam and all manner of smaller brands. I just hope some of the new tech includes more general hearing tools on the models most people will want to use. — Billy Steele, senior editor

Vehicle electrification goes sky high

As the growth of electric cars nears 10 percent of new models sold in the US, it’s easy to forget that wheeled vehicles aren’t the only kind of transportation seeing the shift to battery-powered propulsion. Flying taxis have been a mainstay of CES for the past few years, with concept vehicles from brands as large as Hyundai dotting the show floor in Vegas.

Granted, these contraptions look more like giant drones with cockpits than anything the Jetsons ever dreamed up. But with companies like Archer Aviation and Joby Aviation pledging to actually launch eVTOL services (electric vertical take-off and landing) in 2025, the era of air taxis may have landed for real this time. — Sam Rutherford, senior reporter

Expanded dialog improvement features on soundbars

When it comes to the main aspects of soundbars, there really isn’t a ton of innovation from year to year. Heck, Samsung’s biggest update last year was the addition of HDMI 2.1 support to its flagship model, which should’ve been there already. Companies have also been focused on the transition to cable-free everything, whether that’s wireless Dolby Atmos or wireless transmission boxes. Audio enhancement features are a place where companies can really rise above the fray, and tools like Sonos’ TV Audio Swap and Bose’s Personal Surround Sound are great examples of this. A key area nearly every company can improve is dialog boost, a feature that raises the volume or separates spoken word from background noise and music for better clarity.

Sonos made a huge leap in this regard on the Arc Ultra, offering two additional settings for its so-called Speech Enhancement. Previously, this was just an all-or-nothing toggle, which is how most companies handle their versions of this tool. Not only is the Sonos update customizable to a degree, it’s also just better, thanks in part to the redesigned architecture of its new premium soundbar. This is an obvious area where other companies can improve.

LG and Samsung typically announce new soundbars at CES, and there are plenty of smaller companies that will debut some too. I’d love to see all of them take dialog enhancements a step further and at the very least give multiple options for how it’s applied. LG has been using AI Sound Pro from its TVs since 2021 and Samsung offers something called Adaptive Sound on its home theater speakers. I would expect them both to generally improve the quality of their features, but I’m hoping they’ll expand the capabilities too. — B.S.