OpenAI's ad rules now allow some health and finance advertisers in ChatGPT, while placement restrictions still apply to sensitive conversations.
The post OpenAI Allows Some Health & Finance Ads In ChatGPT appeared first on Search Engine Journal.
O relatório da Sensor Tower referente ao mercado de aplicativos móveis no segundo trimestre de 2026 aponta para uma queda contínua na receita gerada por jogos, enquanto softwares de outros gêneros continuam contribuindo para impulsionar o setor.
Conforme visto pelo 9to5Mac, a receita gerada por apps que não são jogos bateu um recorde de US$24,4 bilhões, com um crescimento expressivo de 14,6% em relação ao mesmo período do ano passado. Em termos absolutos, foram 25,5 bilhões de downloads no segundo trimestre.
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Por outro lado, os jogos apresentaram uma queda de 5,9% em relação ao trimestre anterior, ficando abaixo dos US$20 bilhões pela primeira vez nos últimos nove trimestres — o que pode representar um indício de crise para o setor, pelo menos no mercado mobile.
Quanto aos mercados com o maior número de downloads de apps, o Brasil segue na terceira colocação com 2,43 bilhões de softwares baixados — uma queda de 2%. O país está atrás apenas da Índia (com 6,66 bilhões de downloads) e dos Estados Unidos (com 3,08 bilhões).
A pesquisa também apresentou os gêneros de jogos que mais se destacaram, com a IA generativa liderando esse recorte graças um aumento de 108% ao ano. Segundo os dados, 60% dessa categoria é representada pelo ChatGPT, que cresceu nada menos que 82% ao ano.
O app da OpenAI, inclusive, foi o mais baixado do mundo nos últimos três meses, sendo seguido pelo TikTok e pelo Instagram.
O TikTok também esteve na lista dos que mais geraram receita, ocupando a primeira colocação à frente do ChatGPT e do Google One.
Samsung announces that a major accessibility feature for its Galaxy Buds has cleared a key governmental hurdle.
The company announced this morning (Aug 11) that its Hearing Aid feature for the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro and 4 Pro has been FDA-cleared. Samsung says this enables the previously mentioned devices "to serve as an over-the-counter hearing aid for adults (18 or older) with perceived mild to moderate hearing loss."
For users, this means you'll have access to the Galaxy Buds' Hearing Test, alongside this Hearing Aid feature. Hearing Test is self-administered from the Galaxy Buds menu in your Settings. Samsung says it uses "clinical-grade, pure-tone audiometry" to test your hearing in each ear. Hearing Test is also said to highlight any "hearing deficits." Your Galaxy Buds will generate an "audiogram" that Samsung says mirrors what you'd receive from a professional test.
Once completed, your test will categorize your results in one of the following categories: mild, moderate, severe, or profound.
Your Galaxy Buds will then use your Hearing Test results to fine-tune its Hearing Aid feature. It might boost "high frequencies, surrounding whispers, or distant voices." The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro and 4 Pro benefit from familiar true hearing aid features, such as "noise elimination and beamforming." Hearing Test and the Hearing Aid feature for the Buds 3 Pro and 4 Pro will arrive on Galaxy devices in Q4 2026 in the U.S. and other approved markets.
Samsung has continued to focus on the user's hearing health ever since its huge Health app update in June. In the spirit of being proactive, Samsung announced Hearing Health. It will leverage your Galaxy Watch, phone, and Buds to monitor the noise level around you. If loud noises are a constant, your Galaxy Watch would let you know and urge you to make changes. The idea is to help users better preserve their hearing for the long term.
This capability was announced for the revamped app, which includes a lot of new health features for current and upcoming Galaxy devices. For example, the Galaxy Watch 9 and Watch Ultra 2 feature this new Hearing Health feature right out of the box. Samsung reiterates that users can keep tabs on their Hearing Health from the Health app, and now these new features are on the way for the Galaxy Buds to take things further.
Preserving your hearing is incredibly important. It's one of those things that if you lose it, it's hard to get back. This is even more important, given that we love earbuds. It's easy to pop those in and start listening while working, reading, or walking. But we've got to be conscious about our noise level. You never want those earbuds too loud. That's something we all learned when we were kids, right?
PHILADELPHIA — Public resistance to new data centers has risen sharply across the United States, even as Americans’ overall views of artificial intelligence remain largely unchanged, according to a nationally representative survey from the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. The findings reveal a growing divide between public attitudes toward AI as a technology and attitudes toward the physical infrastructure required to operate it. While many people continue to see potential benefits from AI, particularly in medical research, opposition increases substantially when the technology is associated with a large industrial facility being built near their homes.
The survey found that 61% of U.S. adults somewhat or strongly oppose the construction of new data centers in their communities. That figure is 12 percentage points higher than the 49% recorded in an earlier APPC survey conducted in February and March. Support fell during the same period, from 21% to 14%. The change comes as communities across the country debate the environmental, economic, and social consequences of rapidly expanding computing infrastructure used to train and operate advanced AI systems.
Data centers are specialized facilities filled with servers, networking equipment, cooling systems, backup power supplies, and security infrastructure. AI applications can require enormous amounts of computational power because they process vast datasets and perform calculations across billions of model parameters. Training a large AI model may require thousands of processors operating simultaneously, while everyday use also depends on data centers to generate responses, analyze images, translate languages, and carry out other tasks. These facilities can consume substantial amounts of electricity and water, making their construction a highly visible local issue even when the software they support is used remotely.
Opposition to local data centers crosses political boundaries. Majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and independents said they opposed new facilities in their areas, although the proportions differed: 69% of Democrats, 54% of Republicans, and 53% of independents expressed opposition. Resistance was strongest among adults younger than 30, reaching 70%, and declined to 57% among people 65 and older. The pattern is notable because younger adults are often assumed to be more comfortable with emerging technologies and are more likely to use AI-powered services in education, work, entertainment, and communication.
Despite the shift in views about local infrastructure, broader opinions about AI have remained stable. Thirty-nine percent of respondents said they expected AI’s impact on the United States over the next decade to be somewhat or very negative, compared with 18% who expected a positive impact. The result was statistically unchanged from the spring survey. In addition, 68% said the federal government has done “too little” to regulate AI, a view shared by majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and independents. The results suggest that concerns about AI regulation have become persistent rather than being driven solely by short-term news events.
Respondents distinguished sharply between areas where AI might produce public benefits and areas where it could create risks. Among 13 sectors examined, medical research and scientific discovery was the only category receiving a net-positive assessment, with anticipated benefits exceeding expected harms by 41 percentage points. AI systems are increasingly being used to identify patterns in biological data, predict molecular structures, assist with medical imaging, and help researchers screen potential treatments. These applications may accelerate work that would otherwise require years of laboratory experiments, although they still depend on human validation and carefully controlled clinical studies.
The most negative assessments involved personal privacy and data security, which registered a net score of minus 63 points. Children’s online safety followed at minus 50 points, while employment and jobs reached minus 46 points. These concerns reflect the technical and social consequences of deploying AI at scale. Models may be trained on or exposed to sensitive information, automated systems can make decisions that are difficult to explain, and workplace applications may alter or eliminate certain tasks. The survey does not measure whether these risks will materialize in specific industries, but it indicates that many Americans view them as more immediate than AI’s possible benefits outside medicine.
Personal experience with AI was associated with more favorable opinions about its national impact. Among respondents who said they had never used AI during the previous month, 54% expected its effect on the country to be negative. That proportion fell to 40% among light users and to 29% among those who used AI many times or almost every day. However, frequent use did not make people more supportive of data centers. Opposition to building new facilities near respondents’ homes remained essentially flat across different levels of AI use. This distinction suggests that familiarity may influence perceptions of digital tools, while concerns about electricity demand, water consumption, noise, traffic, land use, and local utility costs may remain regardless of personal experience with AI software.
“The people who use AI the most are the most optimistic about what it will do for the country, and that has been consistent across our surveys,” said Matt Levendusky, a University of Pennsylvania political science professor and the Stephen and Mary Baran Chair in the Institutions of Democracy at APPC. He said that optimism had clear limits, particularly when questions involved privacy, employment, or the construction of a data center nearby. The survey was conducted by SSRS for APPC’s Institutions of Democracy division among 1,320 U.S. adult citizens from June 16 through July 19, 2026. Respondents were surveyed primarily online, with a small telephone sample, and weighted to match population benchmarks. The margin of error for the full sample was plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, with larger margins for subgroups. Together, the findings indicate that the next phase of the AI debate may be shaped less by abstract promises about intelligent software than by negotiations over the highly physical systems that make it possible.
Subject of Research: People
Article Title: Opposition to Local Data Centers Rises Sharply as Views on AI Hold Steady
Web References: Annenberg Public Policy Center news release; Reuters; The New York Times; Associated Press
References: Annenberg Public Policy Center Institutions of Democracy national survey, June 16–July 19, 2026; APPC AI topline survey data; APPC survey methodology
Image Credits: Annenberg Public Policy Center
Keywords: Artificial intelligence, data centers, public opinion, AI regulation, medical research, privacy, data security, employment, social surveys, political science
Expansion microscopy has spent the past decade changing the rules of super-resolution imaging. Instead of relying solely on increasingly sophisticated optics, the technique physically enlarges biological specimens so that molecules separated by nanometers become easier to distinguish with ordinary fluorescence microscopes. Now, researchers have introduced a method designed to push that concept toward one of the most difficult goals in microscopy: seeing the shapes of individual proteins directly.
The approach, described by Ahmed H. Shaib, Mahmoud M. Alawieh and Stefan O. Rizzoli in Nature Protocols, combines one-step nanoscale expansion microscopy with fluctuation-based super-resolution analysis. The resulting workflow, called ONE microscopy, is intended to make molecular-scale imaging more accessible to laboratories that do not have access to cryo-electron microscopes or specialized high-end optical systems.
Traditional light microscopy is limited by diffraction, a physical effect that causes light from two nearby objects to blur together when they are too close. Even modern super-resolution methods can require complex instruments, intense labeling strategies or extensive computational processing. Expansion microscopy takes a different route. Researchers anchor biological molecules within a swellable polymer network and then expand the material, increasing the physical distance between fluorescent labels.
The expansion step does not automatically reveal every molecular detail. A protein’s structure can still be represented by only a small number of fluorescent signals, and conventional images may contain noise, background fluorescence and motion-related fluctuations. ONE microscopy addresses these limitations by analyzing changes in fluorescence intensity over time. These fluctuations contain information about the presence, position and behavior of labeled molecules that may not be obvious in a single frame.
In practical terms, the method links chemical preparation, physical enlargement and computational analysis into a single workflow. Samples are embedded in a polymer gel, labeled to identify the proteins of interest and then expanded. After expansion, researchers acquire image sequences using conventional fluorescence equipment. Specialized software analyzes the temporal variation in the recorded signals, extracting spatial information beyond what a standard diffraction-limited image would provide.
This combination is significant because it shifts the focus from simply locating a protein to examining its overall shape. For many biological questions, knowing that a protein is present is not enough. Its size, orientation and structural organization can determine how it interacts with membranes, vesicles, organelles or neighboring proteins. Directly observing those features could help researchers investigate molecular machines in their native cellular environments rather than relying exclusively on purified samples or averaged structural models.
The protocol is designed to work across a broad range of biological materials, including purified proteins, cultured cells and tissues. That flexibility could make the technique useful for researchers studying protein organization at multiple scales. A purified protein might provide a controlled test of shape reconstruction, while cells and tissues could reveal how the same protein is arranged amid the crowded and complex environment of living biology.
A major part of the reported advance is the accompanying software package. Fluctuation-based imaging can be powerful, but its usefulness depends on reliable data processing, and computational analysis has often been a barrier for non-specialist users. The authors present the software as stable and user-friendly, with the goal of making the analysis more efficient, reproducible and practical for laboratories using standard fluorescence microscopes.
ONE microscopy does not replace cryo-electron microscopy, which remains capable of resolving structures at atomic or near-atomic scales under appropriate conditions. Nor does it eliminate the challenges associated with labeling, gel chemistry, image quality and sample preparation. Expansion can introduce distortions, and successful imaging depends on preserving the relationship between the fluorescent labels and the underlying structures. Nevertheless, the method offers a complementary strategy: rather than averaging thousands or millions of molecules, it aims to examine individual protein shapes through expanded, fluorescence-labeled specimens.
The researchers describe the workflow as a practical framework for protein imaging on conventional equipment. By combining physical separation of fluorophores with information extracted from fluorescence fluctuations, the method brings nanoscale structural analysis closer to routine biological imaging. Its broader impact may come not from replacing existing forms of super-resolution, but from making a previously specialized capability more reproducible and attainable for laboratories investigating how individual proteins operate inside cells and tissues.
Subject of Research: One-step nanoscale expansion microscopy for visualizing individual protein shapes using conventional fluorescence microscopes.
Article Title: ONE microscopy.
Article References: Shaib, A.H., Alawieh, M.M. & Rizzoli, S.O. ONE microscopy. Nature Protocols (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41596-026-01399-x
Image Credits: AI Generated
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41596-026-01399-x
Keywords: expansion microscopy, ExM, nanoscale imaging, super-resolution microscopy, fluctuation-based analysis, protein structure, fluorescence microscopy, single-protein imaging, cryo-electron microscopy, biological imaging
In one of the most unique DIY projects, Reddit user PickentCode has created what can be described as a completely off-the-grid "heat engine computing device." Instead of relying on solar panels or a battery pack, the creator went in a completely different direction, building a custom steampunk-inspired microcomputer which features a miniature Stirling engine to power the hand-crafted wooden console.
Originally patented in 1816 by the Scottish minister and inventor Robert Stirling, a Stirling engine converts heat directly into mechanical energy. By applying a flame to one end of a sealed cylinder, the temperature difference forces the air inside to expand and contract. This cycle pushes a piston that spins the flywheel, which can be used to power a simple generator that converts the mechanical rotation into usable electricity.
"The entire project took about a month to design, build, and program," PickentCode told Tom's Hardware. They first conceptualized a 3D layout using Blender before constructing the physical case out of wood. They even went ahead and utilized a DIY laser engraver to etch a portrait of Robert Stirling and his original 1816 engine patent sketch directly onto the wooden side panels. For the smaller structural elements, the electronic housings and the keycaps were custom 3D printed, while the decorative pipes winding across the frame were made from old shower tubing and some gold paint.
The brains of the system are an ESP32 C3 microcontroller paired with a 2.42-inch monochrome OLED display with a 128x64 resolution, alongside a 16-key keypad. The electrical output of the generator is stabilized using small capacitors wired into the circuit. One can also actively monitor the voltage output using the analog voltmeter, which is wired in parallel, and the two toggle switches mounted on the front panel can be used to turn on the main circuit and the voltmeter.
Running an electronic device, in this case a microcomputer, purely on fire comes with obvious energy limitations. The model Stirling engine can produce only 150 milliwatts of power, and to stay within this tiny power budget, the creator implemented certain hardware and software optimizations. For instance, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth were completely disabled, and the screen brightness was kept low to conserve every milliwatt. PickentCode also tuned the ESP32's CPU frequency, reducing it down to just 80 MHz when updating the screen or interpreting opcodes, going all the way down to just 10 MHz while sitting idle in the main loop.
Despite the limitations, the computer is fully functional. It runs a custom CHIP-8 virtual machine preloaded with classic gaming ROMs like Tetris, Snake, and Pong. Impressively, it also features a built-in code editor, allowing users to type in CHIP-8 opcodes directly to write and execute their own custom programs on the fly.
Stirling engines are not exactly new to the world of computing. Earlier this year, we covered a project by Windows development guru Dave Plummer who showcased a cooling solution that used a small Stirling engine to convert waste heat from an AMD Threadripper system into mechanical energy, which was used to spin the engine's flywheel. While it isn’t an actual solution to an overheating chipset, it is claimed that the flywheel can spin up to about 200 RPM in a 20C/68F environment.
European scientists are taking advantage of this week’s solar eclipse to test a potentially groundbreaking instrument that could transform the way astronomers study the Sun.
For weeks, a team from the Astrophysical Observatory of Turin has been stationed at Spain’s Javalambre Astrophysical Observatory, preparing to deploy a novel spectrometer ahead of the August 12 eclipse.
On that date, researchers will activate the Circular Slit Spectrometer (CISS), which the Turin-based team says will provide a unique new view of our life-giving star. Specifically, the device will focus on the corona, the outermost portions of the Solar atmosphere, and the hottest part of the Sun.
This month, skywatchers will be treated to a trio of celestial events: a solar eclipse and the peak of the Perseids meteor shower on August 12, followed by a lunar eclipse between August 27 and 28. The total solar eclipse will be best viewed from parts of Spain, Portugal, Russia, Iceland, and Greenland, while observers across much of Europe, Africa, and North America will experience only a partial eclipse.
To take advantage of the event, the research team traveled from its home base in Padua, northern Italy, to Spain, where years of development work will culminate in the first field test of CISS. The scientists believe the new instrument could significantly improve observations of the Sun’s corona.
Spectrometers are among astronomers’ most valuable tools, allowing researchers to analyze the composition of stars and even detect the atmospheres of distant exoplanets by examining subtle changes in starlight.
Closer to home, the Italian team believes CISS can separate the wavelengths of sunlight far more rapidly than existing instruments. That capability could prove especially valuable because the corona drives powerful space weather events capable of disrupting communications, power grids, and GPS systems on Earth and in orbit.
The researchers see the eclipse as the ideal opportunity to test their instrument, since the Moon’s passage in front of the Sun dramatically increases the contrast of the corona against the sky. For the team, the observation marks the culmination of more than two and a half years spent rethinking some of the fundamental design principles behind conventional spectrometers.
Unlike traditional spectrometers, which typically rely on a narrow rectangular slit, CISS uses a circular slit. This allows it to “capture the spectrum of the entire corona at a certain distance from the centre of the Sun in a single photograph,” according to principal investigator Federico Landini of the Astrophysical Observatory of Turin.
By redesigning the instrument’s aperture, the researchers say they have reduced the time needed to scan the corona from hours to just minutes. If successful, the eclipse demonstration could pave the way for incorporating the technology into future space missions designed to observe the Sun from closer vantage points.
For now, the team is focused on ensuring the best possible observing conditions. Researchers continue to monitor the weather, with current forecasts appearing favorable for eclipse viewing. To minimize the risk of equipment problems, the team transported CISS from Italy to Spain by van rather than by air, avoiding the need to disassemble the instrument and reducing the possibility of flight delays or cancellations.
Later this week, they will learn whether years of work have produced a breakthrough in solar observation—or simply the next step in refining a promising new technology.
Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org.
I recently just started a new workout regimen, and while I love my AirPods Pro, they tend to work their way out of my ears when I’m active. There’s nothing quite as distracting as having to stop in the middle of a workout to push an earbud back into place, especially when I’m trying to stay focused on what I’m doing.
That got me looking at open-ear earbuds, particularly the clip-on style that doesn’t rely on an ear tip staying securely inside the ear canal. The SOUNDPEATSU@ UU2 caught my attention because they take that approach while still offering features I typically look for in a pair of wireless earbuds, including Bluetooth 6.0, LDAC support, multipoint connectivity, and a claimed 10 hours of battery life.
I’ve also been curious about how well this style of earbud actually performs in everyday use. Leaving the ear canal open sounds appealing for workouts and other situations where I want to remain aware of my surroundings, but that design also raises some questions. How do they sound? Is there enough bass? How secure are they during exercise? And how much sound actually reaches the people around you?
I’ve spent some time with the SOUNDPEATS UU2 to find out whether these clip-on earbuds can deliver the stability and convenience I’m looking for without sacrificing the audio experience that has kept me coming back to the AirPods Pro.
The SOUNDPEATS UU2 are open-ear clip-on earbuds designed to sit around the ear rather than inside the ear canal. This allows users to listen to music while still hearing some of the sounds around them.
The UU2 feature 12mm dual-magnet dynamic drivers with DynamicEQ technology, Bluetooth 6.0, and support for SBC, AAC, and LDAC codecs. They also offer multipoint connectivity, physical button controls, IPX5 water resistance, and up to 10 hours of playback on a single charge. The included charging case extends total battery life to up to 42 hours.
With their lightweight clip-on design and open-ear construction, the UU2 offer an alternative to traditional in-ear earbuds. The rest of this review focuses on how that design performs in everyday use, including comfort, audio quality, fit, controls, and connectivity.
Core Specs
Battery
What’s in the Box
Package & Design
The list price for the earbuds is $49.99 on soundpeats.com and Amazon.
Getting started with the SOUNDPEATS UU2 is straightforward. Inside the box, you’ll find the earbuds, their charging case, a short USB-C charging cable, and a user guide. There’s also an app quick-start card and a SOUNDPEATS sticker sheet. The earbuds arrive stored in the charging case, so there isn’t much to do before getting started beyond charging them and connecting them to a device.
The first thing I noticed after taking the UU2 out of the case was just how different they feel compared with traditional earbuds. Rather than placing anything inside the ear canal, the UU2 use a clip that sits behind the ear with the speaker positioned just outside it. That design takes a little getting used to, but it also ended up being one of my favorite aspects of using them.
The SOUNDPEATS UU2 took a little getting used to at first. Since the clip sits behind the ear, it feels noticeably different from traditional earbuds. Initially, I was very aware of the clip being there, but after wearing them for a while, that feeling became much less noticeable.
Once I got used to the design, I found the UU2 to be very comfortable. One of my favorite things about the open-ear design is that there isn’t a traditional earbud wedged into my ear canal. Instead, it feels almost like I have two small speakers sitting just outside my ears.
The earbuds have stayed securely in place during normal movement, and so far, I haven’t noticed any significant movement or shifting. They also work well with my glasses, and I haven’t experienced any pressure or irritation around my ears.
Putting them on and taking them off takes a little practice because of the clip design, but once I figured out the proper motion, it became easy to do. Overall, I have been very impressed with how comfortable the UU2 are, particularly for longer listening sessions.
I was pleasantly surprised by the sound quality of the UU2. They sound great, and the bass response is particularly impressive for an open-ear design. I expected some compromise in the low end because the earbuds don’t create a seal inside the ear canal, but the bass is actually very strong.
Vocals are clear, and the mids and highs are well balanced. I’ve also been impressed with how the UU2 handle different volume levels. Whether I’m listening at a lower volume or turning things up, the audio remains clear and I haven’t noticed any significant distortion at higher volumes.
For an open-ear pair of earbuds, the overall listening experience has been better than I expected. They provide plenty of volume and bass without losing the clarity that I want when listening to music.
The physical buttons are one area where I think the UU2 could be improved. The buttons themselves work well, but their location makes them a little awkward to press. It isn’t something that prevents me from using the earbuds, but it does take some getting used to.
The controls themselves are intuitive, and I especially like that they can be customized through the SOUNDPEATS app. Being able to change what the different button presses do gives me more control over how I use the earbuds and lets me configure them around my preferences.
Connection speeds have also been good. The UU2 connect to my devices within a few seconds, so I haven’t had to wait around for them to establish a connection.
One of the biggest advantages of an open-ear design is being able to remain aware of what’s happening around me while listening. With the UU2, I can still hear ambient sounds such as my keyboard while I’m typing or my dog barking. However, the music remains the dominant sound, so I wouldn’t describe them as providing complete awareness of my surroundings.
I also haven’t had anyone complain about sound leakage while I’ve been using them. That said, because the speakers sit outside the ear rather than creating a seal, I can see how someone nearby could hear the earbuds if the volume were turned up high enough.
The SOUNDPEATS UU2 have turned out to be a pleasant surprise. I went into this review primarily looking for a solution to a very specific problem: keeping earbuds securely in place while working out. What I found was a pair of earbuds that not only stay in place, but are also comfortable enough that I can see myself using them well beyond my workouts.
At $49.99, the SOUNDPEATS UU2 offer an impressive combination of comfort, sound quality, battery life, and features. For someone looking for an alternative to traditional in-ear earbuds, particularly for workouts or extended listening, the UU2 are easy to recommend.
For more information, visit soundpeats.com
Archaeologists have returned to a rare Iron Age fort in Shropshire that sits in a wetland landscape rather than on a hill. The University of Birmingham has begun a new, ten-year project at Wall Camp near Telford, reopening a site that had not seen a major excavation since the 1980s. The first three-week season took […]
The post A Rare Iron Age Marsh Fort Is Being Excavated Again After 40 Years appeared first on Curiosmos.
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